


Power and Control

by SleepingAshes



Series: and they were roommates!! [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Angst, Background Relationships, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, Implied Relationships, M/M, Porn With Plot, Roommates, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-08 06:43:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 29,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17381603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingAshes/pseuds/SleepingAshes
Summary: Shuichi gets a new roommate who just loves picking on Kaito. Shenanigans ensue, drawing Kokichi and Kaito closer by the day. Maybe they'll even end up tolerating each other by the end of the year.





	1. Eternal Game of Tug and War

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic got a bit out of control! What was supposed to be a one shot turned into a bit of a monster of a fic so I decided to post it in 3 parts! It's going to be the beginning of a roommate au which really all you need to know is Kaito, Korekiyo, and Rantaro are one set of roommates and Kaede, Shuichi, and Kokichi are the other set.
> 
> There's some background Kaede/Shuichi, Shuichi/Kokichi, Rantaro/Kiyo, Miu/Keebo in the fic as well but the main focus and the endgame is definitely Kaito/Kokichi. There's some brief Maki and past Maki/Kaito as well but she isn't in the fic enough for me to feel the need to tag her.
> 
> I hope you enjoy what I have so far!

The first time Kaito Momota met Kokichi Ouma, he was pretty sure he was gonna strangle the guy. It had been a few weeks into the semester and he was finally visiting Shuichi so they could study together. Things had been a little rough what with personal life, work, and classes but they’d worked out a day and Kaito wasn’t going to pass up seeing one of his best friends.

Shuichi had warned Kaito his new roommate would be there. Kaito hadn’t thought anything of it and even told Shuichi not to worry when he started voicing his thoughts on how he wasn’t sure Kaito would get along with this roommate. Kaito had shut it down with “I like Kaede, why wouldn’t I like this guy?” and that had been that.

Both he and Shuichi had the day off so Kaito came over relatively early, making the forty minute walk instead of catching the bus. It was a nice day out, he felt good, he wanted to take advantage of that while it lasted. It was a little past one when things started going wrong. Kokichi had just gotten back from work and while he looked tired he didn’t seem to be acting the slightest bit like it.

“Shuichi, I’m home!” He announced as he walked through the door. He gave Kaito a quick once over before smirking. “Is this the friend you told me about?”

“Yes...please remember you said you would be nice?” Shuichi mumbled, not sounding confident at all but Kaito could tell he was trying.

Kokichi feigned hurt.

“I’m so insulted you would assume I’d be mean to him.” He said, walking over to the pair. “I’m Kokichi Ouma, nice to meet you. I’ve heard, like, sooo much about you.”

“Kaito Momota, nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a thing or two.”

It was a half lie. Shuichi sometimes spoke about Kokichi but Kaito couldn’t recall anything of substance. Just that the guy could be hard to get along with and apparently Shuichi didn’t think he and Kaito would get along.

“Whatcha studying Shuichi?” Kokichi’s voice pulled Kaito out of his thoughts. He looked over to the man and saw him hovering over Shuichi’s homework. “Oh, I take that class too. Maybe you could help me with the work someday?”

Shuichi gave him a curious look.

“Since when do you take classes on politics?”

“...I don’t, that was a lie.” Kokichi confessed, laughing a little.

He pulled away from Shuichi and walked off towards the kitchen, leaving the two alone for the time being. Shuichi gave Kaito a nervous smile before returning to his work. Kaito only broke the comfortable silence between them a few times to ask Shuichi’s opinion on some problems or questions Kaito couldn’t quite figure out but other than that, things were nice and quiet.

Until Kokichi returned.

Kaito was beginning to gather this guy didn’t know how to be quiet. He knew sometimes he had a problem reading the mood but really? This had to be on purpose. They were obviously studying and trying to spend some time together. Still, he didn’t want to seem rude so he bit his tongue and didn’t complain when Kokichi flopped onto the couch next to him, offering Shuichi a grape flavored Panta and a cola to Kaito.

“I didn’t know what you liked so I guessed.” Kokichi said, holding the drink out for him.

Kaito took the drink to be polite.

“Cola’s fine. Thanks?”

“Thanks Kokichi.”

“No sweat, see Shuichi I can be really nice when I want to be.” Kokichi said, reaching over to move Kaito’s textbook to his side of the couch. Kaito gave him a look but Kokichi didn’t seem to care. He leaned back, away from Kaito and began flipping through it. “Oh is this space stuff?”

“You could call it that…” Kaito said. “Can I have that b--”

“You gonna open your drink? It’ll get warm.” Kokichi said, absentmindedly flipping through the textbook.

Kaito bit back a groan of irritation and opened the damn cola. He was instantly met with the contents exploding out of the can and drenching his shirt and face. It took exactly two seconds for Kokichi to break out in a fit of laughter.

“You little shit!” Kaito shouted, standing and fully prepared to drag Kokichi off of that couch and toss him out a window.

Shuichi scrambled to his feet and put a hand on Kaito’s shoulder.

“Hey, calm down.”

“Yeah calm down, Momota, it was just a prank.”

“It was still uncalled for.” Shuichi snapped.

Kokichi didn’t look any less pleased but he stopped laughing at least.

“Aww come on, it wasn’t that bad. Don’t be mad at me Shuichi!”

“I’m not the one you should be asking to not be mad!” Shuichi said, frowning.

Kaito was fuming, only holding back because he didn’t want to further upset Shuichi. Alright, he’d have to admit to Shuichi later he’d been right. There was no way he was going to get along with someone who pulled that kind of prank on the first meeting. It was completely uncalled for and now he was drenched without a backup shirt.

“I think you should leave.” Kaito bit out.

“Huh? Me?” Kokichi tilted his head to the side. “But I live here.”

“There are other rooms to go be an asshole in!”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, setting Kaito’s textbook aside. Thankfully that hadn’t gotten any cola on it… He hopped off the couch and made his way to his room. Kaito waited for the door to shut before he collapsed back onto the couch and sighed heavily.

“I was gonna hit that guy.” Kaito murmured.

“Well… I’m glad you didn’t.” Shuichi said.

He quickly bolted to the kitchen to get some napkins to try to dry off Kaito with. It wouldn’t do much good considering once his shirt dried, it would just be sticky but he tried to push that thought from his mind and focus on fixing the more immediate problem. When he returned to Kaito, the other man was quiet. He appreciated Kaito wasn’t shouting about how he’d pummel Kokichi later but he always worried when Kaito got quiet when he was mad.

Usually it wasn’t a good sign…

“Thanks, Shuichi.” Kaito said. “For uuh...trying to help.”

“No problem.”

“Mind if I stay a while longer? I can’t exactly walk home like this… I figure if I ask Kiyo to pick me up after his shift I might be able to avoid the walk of shame.”

“Sure that’s fine with me.”

“Thanks, man. I’m gonna go… Try to wash this off in the sink or something.”

Kaito stood and made his way over to the bathroom. He shut the door behind him and took his shirt off. It’d be so easy to find Kokichi’s room and just...size him up? Threaten him? Kokichi was way smaller than he was, there was no way he could win in a fight. But he wouldn’t. He wasn’t going to upset Shuichi and ok, maybe it was just a bad prank and he was too mad about this. Still…

He occupied himself with cleaning soda off his shirt. It would be better to wear a wet shirt than a sticky shirt. Or so he told himself. He must have been so occupied he didn’t notice the bathroom door open. He only realized when he heard a whistle.

“Wow, Kaito! Lookin good.” Kokichi’s annoying voice immediately got Kaito’s attention.

“What do you want?” Kaito snapped, ignoring the way Kokichi’s eyes were glued to his abs. Kokichi finally pulled his eyes away and held out a bag in his hands to Kaito. It was a Claire’s bag. Kaito looked at the bag, not sure if this was another one of Kokichi’s tricks.

“Shuichi told me to apologize to you and I just happened to remember I got this shirt that was waaay too big for me but it might fit you! So this is my apology.”

Kaito took the bag cautiously and peeked inside. It was a shirt, like Kokichi said. He slowly took it out of the bag and sure, it would probably fit Kaito but…

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to wear a nice clean shirt?” Kokichi asked, a small grin on his lips as he watched Kaito’s reaction.

“...This is probably the most hideous shirt I’ve ever seen.” Kaito said truthfully. There was a cute cat on it flying through a galaxy on a block of cheese. Who made this? Who would sell this? This couldn’t be a real shirt Claire’s sold… “But I don’t really have any options…”

“Really? I thought the shirt was super cute. But… I guess it is kinda ugly. Suits you.” Kokichi smiled and walked off again before Kaito could think of a witty comeback.

Kaito stared at the space cat cheese shirt in front of him and realized he had to make a decision. Sticky, wet shirt...or his honor as a man. He cursed loudly and shoved the shirt over his head. He was still going to call Kiyo for a ride, there was no way he was going outside in something like that.

**~*~**

The next time Kaito saw Kokichi it was a about a week later at Shuichi’s birthday party. Kaede had planned the whole thing and, unfortunately for Kaito, Kokichi was a huge part of making sure her plans went perfectly. It was Kokichi’s job to distract Shuichi for the majority of the day so the others could set up the party decorations and get food and drinks settled.

Rantaro had been in charge of the cake and thankfully, it came out looking fine. Maki helped Kaede with decorating and setting out the rest of the snacks. Kaito’s job was drinks so he got an assortment of cheap beers and sodas so everyone could get what they wanted. He purposefully avoided grape Panta. Something in his gut told him to. And Kiyo...well, his job was to be present. Which he was doing great at!

While the get together was a little small, Kaito knew Shuichi would prefer it that way. Kaede was smart to invite everyone Shuichi was really close to, and also Kokichi. Well, Kaito didn’t actually know how close Shuichi and that little devil were but he couldn’t imagine it was too close.

Once things were all set up, they just had to wait for Shuichi and Kokichi to arrive. Kaede was brimming with excitement. Her plans were coming together and she’d always wanted to throw a surprise party.

“Kokichi just messaged me, they should be back in about fifteen minutes.” Kaede said, grabbing her friends attention. “We aren’t going to turn the lights off or anything but I do want to shout ‘surprise’ for Shuichi, ok?”

“Is the shouting mandatory?” Kiyo asked from where he was lurking in the corner.

“...No but also if I’m the only one who does it I can and will fight one of you.”

“You don’t gotta worry about that!” Kaito said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “I’ll shout loud enough for all of us!”

“I don’t think they need a noise complaint, Kaito.” Rantaro reminded him carefully.

Kaito shrugged.

“Still. I’m excited so I’m damn well gonna make sure that comes through.”

“Your default is ‘excited’ I think Shuichi knows that.” Rantaro teased with a smile.

The group chatted for a few more minutes until Kaede’s phone went off with a message saying they were on their way up to the apartment. Kaede eagerly gathered everyone near the door and they waited quietly. It wasn’t long before they heard Kokichi’s peppy tone and Shuichi’s laughter from the other side of the door. They heard a key unlocking the door and when the door swung open, Kaede and Kaito eagerly shouted,

“Happy birthday Shuichi!!”

Shuichi was stunned for a moment but he broke out into a smile that honestly warmed Kaito’s heart.

“You guys really put a party together for me?” He asked, unable to keep the smile off his face.

“Well duh!!” Kaede said, pulling Shuichi in for a hug, “You deserved it!”

Shuichi quickly hugged her back. It lasted a few seconds before he pulled away and gave Kokichi a curious look.

“Is this why you were so pushy today?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Hmm, kinda? I mean I needed to keep you occupied so these losers could get everything set up but also I just like it when you struggle to keep up with me!” Kokichi said with a laugh, “Also the day out was kind of my birthday present to you sooo…”

“I really enjoyed it.” Shuichi said quickly, face going red. He didn’t mean to sound like he was ungrateful for everything Kokichi had done for him that day. “It was nice to spend time with you. You know I enjoy it.”

“I know, I know, I’m pretty great so why wouldn’t you?”

Kaito resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Who would honestly enjoy a day out with Kokichi of all people? Shuichi was just too nice… Yeah, that was it.

Things started picking up and eventually Kokichi was forced out of his mind. Shuichi wasn’t much of a drinker but within a few hours Kaito could tell the man was buzzed, putting it nicely. He was getting clingy, a huge sign that Shuichi was maybe drinking a little too much. But it was his birthday so everyone let it slide.

While Shuichi was busy being glued to Rantaro’s side, Kaito occupied himself with Maki and Kaede. Kiyo had somehow struck up a conversation with Kokichi but Kaito could tell it wasn’t going to last long. Both because Kiyo sucked at social interaction and Kokichi was...Kokichi. He wasn’t shocked when after five minutes Kokichi came over to their circle instead. He had a beer in hand and offered it to Kaito.

“Need a refill?” He asked innocently.

Kaito stared at the beer. Nope, he wasn’t falling for this shit again.

“You think I’ll accept a drink from you after last time?”

“Aww it was one time, c’mon. You don’t think I’d pull the same lame trick twice do you?” Kokichi asked, waving the can in front of his face. “I’m trying to be nice.”

“You open it then.”

“Fine, fine. I can’t believe you don’t trust me.”

Kokichi made an exaggerated effort of popping the tab of the can open and much to Kaito’s surprise it didn’t explode everywhere. He hesitantly took the can from Kokichi after and inspected it.

“If you put anything in it…”

“I’m not a monster, jeez Kaito!”

Kaede gave a small laugh at the two, catching Kaito’s attention. He didn’t mention it as he took a small sip of his drink.

“This party really is great Kaede. Can’t say the drinks are really that great but hey, everything else is great!!” Kokichi commented.

“You do know Kaito was in charge of the drinks, right?” Maki asked, barely coating her annoyance.

“Yep that’s why I said it!”

“You’re an ass.” Kaito muttered.

“Wow, cruel. I got you a drink and this is how you repay me? Oh Kaede did you see that super cute shirt I got Kaito?” Kokichi asked, fishing his phone out of his pocket. He scrolled through until he found a picture of Kaito in that atrocious space cat cheese shirt. When had he even taken that?!

Kaede broke out into a fit of laughter immediately. Maki just stared at the photo and then at Kaito, then back to the photo. Kaito was fuming.

“When did you take that?!”

“When you weren’t looking. But it looks like you were posing for it so maybe you knew I was sneaking pics? Are you a camera whore Kaito?”

“Wha--no! And whaddya mean you got me that shirt, I thought you said it just happened to be too big for you!”

“Right, right. Because I totally bought a shirt two sizes too big for me on accident.” Kokichi smirked. “Or maybe that’s a lie?”

“Your face is a lie.” Kaito muttered.

“Oh! Sick burn, Kaito!” The smaller man said laughing. “You totally got me.”

“You think you’re so funny.” Maki sighed.

Kokichi hummed.

“No, I’m pretty sure I _know_ I’m so funny.”

Kaede ended up distracting Kaito with a game of beer pong that worked for a while but eventually Kaito noticed Kokichi whispering something to Shuichi and the two quietly leaving, seemingly unnoticed by the rest of the group. Kaito waited for around five minutes before his curiosity got the best of him. He made the excuse of needing to use the bathroom so he could go seek out Shuichi undisturbed. He heard noises coming from Shuichi’s bedroom and got closer, placing his ear up against the door. Were they fighting or…?

“Fuck, Kokichi…” Shuichi’s voice sounded breathless. Wrecked, even.

Kaito’s eyes widened. No way. No way in hell.

“ _Aah_ …”

That was definitely Shuichi. Moaning. Over Kokichi? Kaito couldn’t believe it. He had to see it with his own eyes. He carefully opened the door just a tad, just to make sure that was really Shuichi in there. He regretted it immediately.

Shuichi was sitting on his bed, pants pulled halfway down. Kokichi was in between his legs sucking him off and god, Shuichi couldn’t seem to be getting enough of it. He had a hand fisted in Kokichi’s hair as he let out another moan, this one louder than the others. The blush on Shuichi’s face was...attractive, to say the least. Kaito banished the thought immediately. He shouldn’t be thinking about that right now.

Hell, he shouldn’t be spying right now!

Kokichi pulled off of Shuichi’s cock with an eager moan of his own. Kaito hadn’t been caught yet so...he stuck around. Kokichi’s body blocked Shuichi’s cock from his view, thankfully, but Kaito could still see the motion of his hand jerking Shuichi off.

“I told you that you’d like my extra gift, Shuichi.” Kokichi said in a voice deeper than Kaito had ever heard from him. “Fuck, I want you to cum in my mouth.

“Sh-shit...you can’t just say things like that…” Shuichi stuttered, covering his mouth with his hand to muffle a moan. “ _Kokichi_ …”

“You look so good like this…” Kokichi murmured, leaning back down to take Shuichi back into his mouth.

Kaito somewhat reluctantly pulled away and shut the door quietly. There was a part of him that wanted to stay there and watch the rest of whatever that had been play out. It...made him feel dirty for wanting to see that. But he knew if he stayed he’d end up saying or doing something. He stumbled back to the rest of the group, trying desperately to push what he’d just seen out of his mind.

He wasn’t disgusted, he was just oddly jealous. Jealous Shuichi would trust Kokichi of all people to see him like that. Jealous that Shuichi seemed to want Kokichi so much. Maybe it was because he was buzzed? He got clingy when he was buzzed. Or maybe Shuichi really did like Kokichi that much…

Kaito ended up drinking a little more than he should have. He barely noticed when Kokichi and Shuichi returned to the party looking slightly disheveled and wow that was definitely a hickey on Shuichi’s neck, but if anyone noticed they didn’t say a word so Kaito didn’t either.

By the end of the night he really, really wanted to make a huge mistake and go home with Maki, but Rantaro all but dragged him to Kiyo’s car and managed to get him inside their shared apartment with minimal troubles. He helped Kaito to his room but before Rantaro could leave Kaito stopped him.

“Hey, Rantaro…” Kaito said, trying to not to slur his words together too much.

“What’s up?” Rantaro was clearly more sober than he was. He sat next to Kaito on the bed patiently as he waited for his friend to come up with the right words.

“Is it like...gay to think two guys sucking dick is hot?”

“Yes, Kaito, that might be classified as a little gay.” Rantaro said, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh. I think I’m a little gay then.”

“I think that would be called ‘bisexual’ but don’t quote me on that.” Rantaro gave a small, awkward laugh. “I don’t know what kind of porn you’ve been watching but maybe we should save this conversation for when you’re sober.”

“Yeah maybe.” Kaito paused for a minute but the thought was in his mind now. He couldn’t calm down until he figured something out. “I’ve only ever been with Maki but like, you know how we broke up? I was thinking it wouldn’t hurt to try some stuff with other people. I kinda thought about guys before but after tonight I think I wanna do something about that.”

“Oh? And what made you realize that?”

Kaito tried to think over his words carefully. He couldn’t just say he caught Kokichi sucking Shuichi off, could he? That was an invasion of privacy, even drunk Kaito knew not to mention it so outright.

“Maybe it was your damn pretty face.”

“I’m flattered. Maybe you could try flirting with me when you’re sober though.”

“Yeah, I could probably do that.”

“I’ll catch you in the morning then. We can nurse our hangovers together.” Rantaro said with a smile.

“Sounds like a plan.”

It was in fact a horrible plan that consisted of no flirting, just Kaito complaining about his headache.

**~*~**

Christmas break was a blessing. The semester had been rough to say the least but Kaito had made it through. He was happy to go back home to his grandparents for a few days as well. He just needed a textbook he left behind at Shuichi’s so he wouldn’t fall behind on his studies and then he’d be all packed.

Unfortunately, Shuichi had already returned home for the break. Double unfortunately, Kaede went home too. The worst part? Kokichi was there. He could get his textbook but he’d have to deal with Kokichi… It was don’t study or suffer through Kokichi’s...everything.

In the end Kaito sucked it up and convinced himself to go get his textbook. He’d asked Shuichi for Kokichi’s number just so he could ask when a good time to stop by was. Apparently Kokichi had the whole day off so that just meant Kaito had to will himself to walk over… Curse Kiyo for being the only one out of his roommates with a car and curse his job for making him work all day that day.

Kaito arrived late in the afternoon and was greeted by the shorter man at the door. He invited Kaito in and went off to go find where Shuichi had left Kaito’s textbook. He hoped Kokichi hadn’t messed with it in any way, those things were expensive…

“Found it!” Kokichi’s voice called from another room. He returned with it in hand but didn’t give it to Kaito right away. “So Shuichi was telling me you wanna be an astronaut huh? That’s why you study all this space stuff?”

“Obviously?” There was an awkward pause before Kaito cleared his throat and tried again, “I, uh, have wanted this since I was a kid. So college came around and I thought I might as well actually try to follow my dreams.”

“That’s...actually really admirable.” Kokichi said, almost completely serious. “Naive but admirable.”

“Naive? And what are you going for? A degree in being a fuckin’ clown?”

Kokichi chuckled.

“Aww you got me, yeah I’m totally in clown school! Sike, I’m not. I’m going for psychology.”

“...Wait, really?”

“No, that’s a lie. Me? A psychiatrist? Can you imagine?”

Kaito let out an irritated sigh.

“Actually I can, and I think you’d drive your patients more crazy than they already were.”

Kokichi whined.

“That’s mean. I’d be great as a psychiatrist!” He gave his most convincing pouting face and honestly, it was kind of funny to see him like that but Kaito forced himself not to smirk. “I’m actually just doing my core classes right now. I’ve got no idea what I want to go to school for.”

“You haven’t finished your cores?”

“No I only do one class a semester.”

“...Huh. Wait, is that a lie too?”

“Nope, it’s true! Scouts honor!”

Kaito doubted that.

“So...are you going home for the holiday?” Kaito asked awkwardly. Something flashed across Kokichi’s face before it was promptly buried. He couldn’t quite grasp what emotion it was but Kokichi hadn’t looked thrilled at his question.

“No, I’m staying here all break.” Kokichi informed him.

“Oh. Uh… Your parents not home or something?”

“I’m an orphan.” Kokichi said far too casually, raising an eyebrow.

He didn’t sound offended but Kaito still felt like an asshole for pressing it. He fumbled to apologize but Kokichi only seemed more amused by his efforts to save the conversation than upset or annoyed Kaito had asked about his home life.

“...Or maybe that’s a lie too?” Kokichi said after a moment.

“...Dude, seriously?” Kaito asked, frowning. “You’d lie about that?”

“Would I?” Kokichi hummed, tilting his head as if he were in deep thought. “I don’t know if I would. I’ll let you decide that!”

Kaito shook his head. What was with this guy?

“I don’t get you at all.” Kaito admitted.

“I could say the same for you. And that’s the truth.” Kokichi said in a serious tone. He looked at Kaito for a second, deep in thought, before he shrugged his thoughts off and handed the man his textbook. “Have fun studying space stuff.”

“Y-Yeah. Uh. Have a good break doing...whatever it is you do?”

“I will! Bye now!”

**~*~**

Holidays came and went quickly. Kaito was a bit upset he didn’t have much time to spend with his grandparents before returning back to his apartment but at least he got about a week. He was back in time for New Year’s, as were most of his friends so he decided to throw a party to celebrate.

Kiyo agreed to host it at their house under the stipulation it doesn’t get too crazy. Kaito was determined to make this a party even Kiyo would enjoy. He wouldn’t invite too many people, probably just everyone who had been at Shuichi’s birthday party, and he put a limit on the amount of alcohol that would be there. No one seemed bothered by this, thankfully.

The hardest part for Kaito was putting his ego aside and inviting Kokichi. He kind of didn’t want to, but Shuichi had seemed a tad upset when Kaito initially said he wasn’t inviting the smaller man. He was beginning to accept that Kokichi and Shuichi were friends and he’d just have to deal with that somehow, someway. Obviously they were close if Shuichi’s birthday was anything to go by…

It didn’t help Rantaro actually seemed to like Kokichi and Kiyo found him “interesting” or so he’d said. Kaito had muttered that Kiyo found a lot of weird things interesting but relented and agreed to invite Kokichi. He sucked up his pride and gave the man a call.

Kokichi picked up after a few rings and sounded way too pleased Kaito had called him.

“Hey Kaito, I super wasn’t expecting a call from you!”

“So Shuichi told you I was gonna call.” Kaito gathered.

“No of cooourse not. Why would he do that?”

“Whatever. I just thought I should let you know there’s gonna be a party at my place on New Year’s. I thought it would be nice to invite you or something.”

“I’m honored to be considered as a guest!”

Kaito bit back a response on how it wasn’t exactly his choice.

“Uh, yeah. It’d be kind of weird if everyone but you was invited.” Kaito said, instantly realizing that sounded just as rude. “I mean a lot of people wanted you there. So you’re invited.”

“I don’t need a pity invite. But i’ll come anyways so thanks! I actually work on New Year’s so I’ll be over a bit later than everyone else, is that ok?”

“Sure, I don’t really care.”

“Great see you then!”

Kokichi hung up without another word. Kaito realized just how hard it was going to be to abide by his drink limit rule. This guy...no matter what he did or how he acted just seemed to get on Kaito’s nerves.

When the day of the party rolled around, Kaito tried his best to keep positive. He felt great, looked great, and was determined to make this party great. Shuichi and Kaede arrived together, Maki arrived about an hour after them. Kaito and Kaede were probably the most dressed up out of anyone there. Kiyo looked about normal and Rantaro was...Rantaro. He could pull anything off. Maki wasn’t super dressed up but Kaito couldn’t keep himself from commenting on how good she looked anyways. Shuichi was Shuichi-- looked perfectly normal but he was back to wearing that damn hat of his.

After a while there came another knock at the door. Kokichi had arrived and Kaito’s mood plummeted. He avoided him in order to have a good time but after a while Kokichi managed to find a way into every conversation he was having.

“So who’s kissing who tonight, hmm?” Kokichi was asking, taking note of the way Shuichi blushed. He was definitely planning to tease him later over it. “For the record I’m not taken if anyone is offering!”

“Yeah, I don’t think anyone wants to start off their new year kissing you.” Kaito said and maybe it sounded a bit harsh but he didn’t care.

“I’m wounded, Kaito.” Kokichi said, working up some fake tears. “Do you really think I’m that bad…?”

“I know you are.”

Kokichi scoffed and immediately the fake tears were gone. Instead he draped himself over Shuichi and pouted,

“Shumai, tell him I’m a great kisser!”

“Shumai?” Shuichi questioned.

“We’re like, super best friends so you get a nickname now.” Kokichi explained casually, “That’s how friendship works, duh.”

“Why would Shuichi know if you were a good kisser or not?” Kaede wondered aloud, bringing attention to the implications of what Kokichi had said on accident. “Unless- Oh. Oh!”

“Oh my god…” Shuichi instantly hid his face with his hat. Kokichi just laughed and plucked the hat right off his head. “K-Kokichi!”

“Tell them what an awesome kisser I am and I’ll give you your hat back, ok?”

Shuichi was bright red. It was obvious he was going from flustered to thoroughly embarrassed very quickly. Kaito was about to step in but Kokichi just gave a small laugh and put Shuichi’s hat on his head, albeit backwards.

“That was just a lie.” He claimed. “Though if my beloved Shuichi ever did want to know what a great kisser I was… I’m open to it!”

Kokichi went off on his own to the kitchen, allowing Shuichi to calm down. Kaede gave him a questioning look and before anyone could stop her she blurted out,

“So did you and Kokichi ever actually, y’know, or was he just kidding?”

“Kaede!”

“I’m just asking!”

Rantaro rolled his eyes then wandered off to the kitchen. Kaito curiously trailed after. He found Kokichi sipping on a cola, scrolling through his phone. Kaito lingered behind, curious to see how Rantaro and Kokichi interacted.

“Are you having a good time?” Rantaro asked, grabbing a soda for himself.

“Yeah, totally.” Kokichi claimed, but he seemed bored. It was probably a lie. “I had planned on surprising Shuichi with the kiss to end all kisses come midnight but after that reaction I think I’ll have to change my target.”

“He gets flustered easily, I’m sure you know how he is.”

“Oh I know how he is.” There was that signature smirk playing on his lips. “He can be real sweet when he wants to be, you know.”

“Sounds like Shuichi.”

Kokichi hummed and put his phone down. He gave Rantaro what could only be described as puppy dog eyes.

“So, are you taken?”

Rantaro raised an eyebrow.

“You’re asking _me_?”

“Well duh. I need someone to get with tonight. I kinda passed up my easiest hook up option ever for this party but I’m still down for some extracurriculars if you are.”

Rantaro’s laugh was a sweet sound. Kaito wondered how he just couldn’t seem to get offended by anything. He always took things in stride.

“So you had another commitment? I’m glad you ditched.”

“Miu and Keebo are kinda friends of mine. I like them and all, but I think I like it here better.” For once Kokichi sounded honest. “I did pass up a threesome so if I don’t get at least a kiss tonight I’m gonna be a little bitter.”

“I bet you are.” Rantaro took a sip of his drink and Kaito swore Rantaro was checking Kokichi out. “Unfortunately…”

“Not your type?”

“Nah, not that. I’ve got my own goals for the new year.”

“Oooh who is it? Is it Kaito? It’s totally Kaito.”

“I don’t know, is it?”

Kokichi’s eyes lit up.

“Oh you like keeping secrets do you?”

“It’s always good to add some mystery.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Despite what Rantaro had said, Kaito could tell Kokichi was still interested. The way he batted his lashes at Rantaro and bit his lip-- did he have any shame at all? “Shame someone got to you before I did.”

“What can I say? I’m a holy man saving myself for my soulmate.”

There was a brief pause before the two began laughing, as if they knew the concept was just downright ridiculous. As if Kokichi knew Rantaro just wasn’t the type. It rubbed Kaito the wrong way.

“So if you’re out of the picture and Shuichi and Kaede are out of the picture…” Kokichi thought to himself out loud, “I guess that means I’ll go for Maki!”

“Enjoy being castrated.”

“Thanks, I will! It’s always been a big kink of mine!” Kokichi said with a straight face. “Except that’s a lie.”

Kaito cleared his throat and decided to make himself known, finally. He stepped into the kitchen feeling slightly guilty for eavesdropping but decided not to let it show. Confidence was key, he told himself.

“Sorry for interrupting.” He said anyways, making his way over to the fridge and pulling out a beer. “You two having fun?”

Rantaro nodded, making a small comment about how “of course he was” because he was surrounded by friends. Kokichi’s response was more delayed, catching Kaito’s attention. The smaller man was looking at him with what could only be described as _interest_.

“I guess I’m having fun. I was just telling Rantaro here about how I passed up like a super big orgy for this boring party but it could be a lot worse.” Kokichi said after a moment. He sighed dramatically, “Time to go socialize again. Who knows maybe I’ll seduce Korekiyo, he seems really, really nice!”

“Didn’t take you for the desperately horny type.” Kaito said.

“I guess you’d be able to spot your own kind,” Kokichi shot back.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m calling you desperate, Momota.”

“I’ll kick your ass.”

“I don’t doubt you would!” Kokichi said with a smile. “But secretly I’m super into that.”

Kaito rolled his eyes. Of course Kokichi would say that. Of course he couldn’t let Kaito have the last word. This guy was so annoying. Rantaro just watched the two continue to banter until Kaede interrupted them, saying it was almost time. Five minutes till midnight.

Kaito returned to the living room with the rest of his guests. He let himself relax on the couch, well, until Kokichi decided to sit right next to him.

“Momotaaa,” He whined, leaning on his shoulder, “Don’t ignore me, we were having such a fun conversation before!”

“You call that fun?”

“You’re fun to rile up.” Kokichi paused. “That’s not a lie. You’re _fun_.”

Kaito could take the compliment for what it was or try to think of a deeper meaning behind his words. He chose not to let Kokichi get to him and just thank him.

“Fun and stupid.” Kokichi clarified.

Kaito swore under his breath.

“Oh before I forget,” Kokichi went on, “I think I figured out my new year's resolution. Do you have one?”

“Do well in school, all that.” Kaito replied, trying to sound disinterested.

“Aww that’s so boring.”

“Maybe my new year’s resolution should be to shut you up then, how about that?” Kaito said with a bit more force than needed. It didn’t scare Kokichi off like he intended, instead the man just leaned in closer. In the back of his mind Kaito could hear the countdown on the T.V.

10...9...8...7...

“That’s so perfect,” Kokichi was saying.

6...5...4...

“Because I _want_ you to shut me up.” He whispered, just loud enough for Kaito and no one else to hear.

3...2...1…

Kokichi closed the distance between them and kissed Kaito. Kaito was half tempted to shove Kokichi away and half tempted to take advantage of this and use this opportunity to actually keep him quiet. But then his thoughts went back to Shuichi’s party and...well, if that brief moment of spying was anything to go by he didn’t think this would be the best way to keep Kokichi quiet.

The thought didn’t stop him from acting on instinct. Maybe he was a bit more than buzzed and that’s why he was rolling with it. Maybe he was actually internally admitting Kokichi was a good kisser. He deepened the kiss, pulling Kokichi closer and cupping the side of his face. He wasn’t thinking about the possibility of others noticing. He just acted on pure instinct until a noise broke the silence in his head. Kokichi _whined_ into the kiss, startling Kaito.

He pulled away quickly, ignoring how Kokichi tried to chase his lips for a second before regaining composure. Kaito coughed awkwardly and looked around him, hoping he hadn’t gained too much attention. Much to his luck...mostly everyone was occupied. Kaede and Shuichi pulled away from their own kiss while Rantaro had a small smile and blush coating his face and was he sitting closer to Kiyo? He hadn’t been that close to him before the countdown. The only person who’s judging stare he felt was Maki’s.

Kokichi rested his head against Kaito’s shoulder, acting as if that were perfectly normal for the two of them.

“I think you’re starting out your new year pretty good, huh?”

Kaito couldn’t find it in him to disagree, really. It...hadn’t been a bad experience.

**~*~**

It wasn’t that Kokichi got more bearable after new years. Definitely not. Kaito just found better ways to deal with him, that’s all. He began knowing when to expect Kokichi’s lies and pranks and even began keeping a mental note of how many ridiculous lies Kokichi tried to pass off as the truth.

So far most were about his job or his home life. Multiple times Kokichi claimed he was secretly a leader of an evil organization that controlled the government. Every time the story would change slightly, but that seemed to be his go to for explaining his job. A few times he’d said he was an agent for the government, a lawyer, and once a porn star.

Home life was less imaginative but still Kokichi never kept his story straight. He leaned on the tragic orphan tale more often than not but sometimes would claim his parents were billionaires or something of the sort. He once said he was a genetically engineered experiment who broke out of a government facility then followed that up with “It’s true!” as if anyone would believe him.

Slowly as January passed by Kokichi became less of a nuisance and his lies became somewhat entertaining, not that Kaito would admit that out loud to anyone. Kokichi eventually did let on about some truths in his life. He wasn’t as much of a loner as Kaito expected and he actually had friends. Well, if having Miu Iruma as a friend was an accomplishment to be proud of… But she and her boyfriend Keebo seemed to be Kokichi’s go to when it came to friends outside of Shuichi.

Kaito couldn’t decide who was weirder. Kokichi’s friends or Kiyo’s. He shuddered at the thought of Angie Yonaga and her pestering him for a blood sacrifice again. He thought if he did it once she’d leave it be but no, he’d opened up Pandora’s Box with that girl.

He hung out at Shuichi’s more and more as the semester started up again and while Kokichi was getting less annoying that didn’t mean he was suddenly equipped to deal with Miu being around all the time now.

“Kokichi you fuckin’ moron that’s not how we’re doing this damn project!”

“Shut uuup, like you know what you’re doing anyways!”

“ _I’m_ the genius here so we should listen to _me_ , not your dumb ass!”

It was almost impossible to study with those two bickering all the damn time.

“The only thing your genius at is finding new ways to degrade yourself you ugly cow.” Kokichi snapped.

Oh. That was new. Kaito’s head whipped in the direction of the trio sitting by the coffee table. He was going to say something about Kokichi’s language but...Miu didn’t seem bothered at all. In fact she seemed...happy. Oddly happy.

“I-I c-can’t believe y-you called me thaaat…” Miu whined.

“And I can’t believe Keeboy over here is such a goddamn cuck.” Kokichi muttered.

“I am not!”

“Oh please!”

“Keebo I’m just sayin maybe we could consider--”

“Miu, no!” Keebo tried in his defense.

“Miu, yes!” Kokichi encouraged. “Be honest with yourself. That whore would gladly get gang banged and want you to watch it.”

Kaito stared, wide eyed. What was he witnessing? He looked over to Shuichi for some kind of explanation but Shuichi just shrugged and gave him a look as if to say “He’s not wrong.”

“Can we please get back to this project?” Keebo begged.

“Fine, fine, get your sex crazed girlfriend in check.” Kokichi said, rolling his eyes and leaning back. He saw Kaito’s shocked expression and gave him a wink. “Or maybe not. Maybe I can continue calling her out for being the insatiable cum dumpster she is? I think some people here might like that.”

“Please don’t!” Keebo spoke up again, clearly embarrassed.

“Fiiiine, none of you are any fun.”

“I’m plenty fun!” Miu protested. “Tell them Keebo!”

“She’s very fun.” Keebo said.

Kokichi laughed.

“Cuck.”

“I’m not!”

“The one who isn’t any fun is you, Kokichi! You-- You talk big but we all know trash like you can’t do anything to satisfy a real woman like me!”

“I don’t need to satisfy any women. I have Kaito to satisfy! Right, Kaito?” Kokichi asked, perking up and giving him a grin. “Tell them how good I am in the bedroom!”

Kaito blinked. Why was this his reality?

“W-wait--”

“What?! You and Kaito are…” Miu looked at the two. “So that’s where all those hickies you try to hide come from!”

“You totally caught me.” Kokichi admitted, “Kaito the gig is up. Our relationship can’t stay secret anymore.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Baaaabe, it’s ok. No one’s gonna judge. Well, maybe Keebo but that’s because he’s an asshole.” Kokichi said, getting up only place himself right on Kaito’s lap. He wrapped his arms around his neck and smiled. “You love me, right?”

“What are you gettin’ at?” Kaito asked dumbly. “What kinda game are you playing right now?”

“A fun one!” Kokichi said, leaning in and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “I’m lying, Kaito isn’t good enough to fuck me. He wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to satisfying me… Right, Shumai?”

“Why are you asking me?” Shuichi asked nervously.

Kokichi didn’t give an answer. He just slid off of Kaito’s lap and went back to his work, somehow managing to lead the conversation completely off the topic of sex. Once he got back on topic for whatever project he, Miu, and Keebo were working on it was like he’d never made a scene to begin with. Kaito was amazed with Kokichi’s ability to change the mood of a conversation in a heartbeat, even if he used that skill for less than pure purposes most of the time.

After a while Kaito and Shuichi moved to the kitchen so the other three could bicker without interrupting anything. They kept it reasonably quiet and Kaito realized that was as good as it was going to get. While he and Shuichi took a small break Kaito couldn’t get a few things out of his head.

Kokichi liked flirting and messing with people, that was obvious. But it almost always came back to Shuichi… Even though Kokichi claimed to be single and still messed with other people he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else going on between him and Shuichi… But Shuichi would’ve said something to him right? They were best friends.

“Hey, Shuichi can I ask you something?” Better to ask while he could.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Are you and Kokichi...a thing?”

Shuichi jumped at the question. Kaito just gave him a curious look while he waited for Shuichi to get his thoughts together.

“Uh...no, not exactly. No. We aren’t.” He fumbled. “What made you ask that?”

“I dunno Kokichi just acts like he’s got a crush on you or something. But that’s ridiculous,” Kaito was going to continue until he saw guilt creep onto Shuichi’s face. Oh. He was onto something. “...Does he?”

“I-I don’t know for sure.” Shuichi admitted. “But there’s...enough there for me to think he might. Or, might have had a crush on me at one point. That sounds arrogant…”

“Not really. If it’s true, it’s true. But really? Kokichi?” Kaito made a face. “I can’t picture him in a relationship.”

“He’s not incapable but he wasn’t going to open up to me. I knew that even though he considers me his closest friend. Maybe it was wrong of me to still sleep with him but--”

“...Repeat that?”

“Repeat what?”

“...Just how far did you two go?”

Shuichi’s red face was the only answer Kaito needed.

“Damn Shuichi, getting more action than I am huh?” Kaito tried to play it off like it didn’t bother him. He tried to act like he wasn’t jealous. He didn’t even know why he was jealous, he didn’t like Shuichi in that way and he sure as hell wasn’t interested in a relationship with Kokichi but still a part of him was...bitter. Bitter that Shuichi had let someone other than Kaito or even Rantaro see him in such a vulnerable state.

“It didn’t last long. I realized it was only going to cause problems and he’s been respectful of that but I can’t help but feel like I hurt his feelings by cutting off that aspect of our friendship.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“...I suppose.”

“I mean, if he’s a good friend he’ll get over it. It was just sex.”

Shuichi made a face.

“True but sex with one sided feelings is still hard to get over, I’d imagine. It definitely isn’t ideal for anyone.” Shuichi said. “I care about his feelings but I think he’s finding other outlets.”

“Like Miu, probably.” Kaito scoffed.

“Probably.” Shuichi agreed carefully, choosing not to mention how Kokichi had made advances on Kaito twice now. He could see this going a few ways and if his predictions ended up true...well, Kaito wouldn’t have to worry about Shuichi getting more ‘action’ than him anymore.

**~*~**

Kaito had no clue when he started tolerating Kokichi so much. There would be a sort of trend; Kaito would go to Shuichi’s after class a few days a week and wait for him at his apartment. Kokichi would be there and the two would spend some time together while they waited for Shuichi. Normally, Kokichi had to leave once Shuichi got there but he didn’t seem to mind keeping Kaito company, even when Kaito started getting used to his various tricks.

He knew better never to take most of what Kokichi did or said so seriously now but it didn’t work all the time. Sometimes Kokichi would say just the right thing to get under Kaito’s skin but there hadn’t been an outburst. Yet. Kaito did hope Kokichi never got him angry to the point of violence but there were times he tested him in all the wrong ways.

Today was shaping out to be that kind of day. Kaito was trying to read ahead in his textbook when Kokichi had decided that was the perfect time to start using him as a personal couch. Kaito had tried not to react at first, knowing reactions were what the other man wanted, but when Kokichi started purposefully elbowing him in the rib cage… Well, Kaito got mad.

He shoved Kokichi away from him, scowling.

“Do you even care how annoying you are?” He bit out.

Kokichi just laughed and it fueled Kaito’s anger even more. He sat up straight and frowned at the man.

“I really don’t get you.” Kaito muttered. “You do shit like this all the time. You’ll sit there and find a way to annoy everyone and you just laugh it off when people get pissed at you. Why do you do that?”

“Because it’s fun?” Kokichi offered. “What do you want me to say? Sorry? I’m not going to apologize for how I am. It isn’t my fault you don’t get me.”

“It is though!”

“Not if you haven’t tried.” The smaller man smirked and leaned close to Kaito. “From the moment you met me you just wrote me off as an annoyance. Something to get between you and Shuichi. You never tried to talk to me or understand me and I really doubt you ever well. And that’s fine. But you don’t get to be an asshole to me when _you’re_ the one who doesn’t want to put in the effort.”

“Shut up.” Kaito snapped, moving to push Kokichi away again but Kokichi grabbed his hand with a devilish look in his eyes.

“Make me.”

Kaito paused. His mind went back to the New Year’s party, wondering if this had been Kokichi’s plan all along. He’d kissed him then saying something similar. Was this what Kokichi playing at? Was this some elaborate scheme to get Kaito to make out with him? A part of him highly doubted that but also… Kokichi was probably one of the more unpredictable people he knew. He wouldn’t put it past him.

“Don’t freeze up on me now, Kaito.” Kokichi’s voice lowered to an almost sultry tone, “I showed you how to shut me up, remember? Now do it.”

_I shouldn’t_ , everything in Kaito screamed. _I really, really shouldn’t_. Not that his thought process mattered when his body was acting on its own. He was already smashing his mouth against Kokichi’s in an uncoordinated kiss. He was letting his body do the talking, trying to get rid of his pent up anger in a way he hadn’t in a long time now. God it felt like too long...

Kokichi moaned into the kiss and moved to straddle Kaito’s lap. Kaito’s hands instantly went to grope the man’s ass but he mentally justified this as supporting his weight. _Yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself to help you sleep at night_ … He was snapped out of his thoughts when Kokichi ground his hips down into Kaito’s. Kaito couldn’t stop the startled moan that escaped him.

“Is this what you do?” Kaito asked in a strained voice, pulling away just a bit. Kokichi whined at the loss of contact and began attacking Kaito’s neck with small bites. “Fuck… Do you just… piss people off until they fuck you?”

Kokichi latched his mouth to a specific spot on Kaito’s neck that made the man shudder from the pleasure before he pulled away with a satisfied smirk.

“No, I only did that with you.” He admitted. “Think of it as being special.”

“I’m so fucking honored.”

“You should be. I don’t let just anyone fuck me.”

Kaito rolled his eyes.

“Right, I’m sure.”

Kokichi pulled him back in for a kiss, muttering “You talk way too much,” in between kisses. He occupied Kaito with his mouth, hands, and body as much as he could to get the other man sufficiently in the mood. He didn’t need to try so hard, Kaito was already getting hard and he was definitely going to fuck Kokichi until he couldn’t speak.

The next time Kaito pulled away to catch his breath, he was fully hard and he could feel his face was flushed. The way Kokichi was looking at him did not help one bit. He was looking at him like he could eat him alive. The other man licked his lips, eyes stuck on the tent in Kaito’s pants.

“Lemme suck you off.” He said under his breath. “I’m good at it, I can make you feel so, so good.”

“Fuck, ‘m not sayin’ no to that…”

Kokichi eagerly moved off the couch and onto his knees in front of Kaito. Kaito was beginning to think maybe Kokichi had an oral fixation but he kept his mouth shut. Kokichi moved to unzip Kaito’s pants but was cut off by the sound of the door unlocking and opening. He didn’t miss the bitter look on Kokichi’s face, but the smaller man quickly pulled away and put on what had to be the fakest smile he’d ever seen. _Goddammit Shuichi…_

“Welcome home Shuichi!” Kokichi chirped, settling himself back on the couch as if nothing had happened. “If you’re home that means I have to leave for work soon, aww… And Kaito and I were getting along so well today!”

“Were you?” Shuichi questioned, shooting a confused glance towards Kaito. Shuichi definitely didn’t miss how disheveled Kaito’s appearance was.

“I uh… Yeah, you could say that.” Kaito said awkwardly.

Kokichi rolled his eyes.

“Anywaaays… This has been fun Kaito! Maybe we can pick up where we left off later? We were having such a fun _conversation_ after all!” Kokichi didn’t wait for a reply before giving a half hearted wave and walking off to his room, presumably to get ready for work. He left not soon after leaving Kaito and Shuichi to their own devices.

Kaito was pleasantly surprised when Kokichi texted him later with the offer to stop by his apartment after work.

**I get off at seven, but I’m down if you are.**

Kaito hadn’t hesitated in taking him up on that offer.

**~*~**

It was just past seven thirty when Kokichi arrived at Kaito’s apartment. Even though it was pure chance, their meetup time worked well. Rantaro and Kiyo had gone out and probably wouldn’t be back until past midnight. Which meant Kaito was free to do as he pleased without worrying about someone overhearing his shenanigans with Kokichi.

Within five minutes, Kaito had Kokichi pinned to his bed. The two were grinding against each other like horny teenagers, hands groping at any place they could reach. It felt like both too long and too soon when Kokichi pulled away, a deep blush coating his cheeks.

“How do you wanna do this?” He asked.

Kaito felt dumb at the question.

“Uh… Well, the normal way?”

Kokichi raised an eyebrow.

“...Omigod are you a virgin?”

“What?! No!”

“So you _have_ fucked a guy before, right?”

Kaito’s silence was damning. He expected Kokichi to laugh at him or tease him but instead Kokichi just hummed, staring at him with an unreadable expression. After a moment he lightly pushed at Kaito so he could sit up.

“Sooo if we’re going to do this you need to know what you’re doing.” Kokichi began.

“I know the basics, I’m not a moron.” Kaito said, “I’ve watched enough porn to know what to do in _theory_.”

Kokichi seemed somewhat relieved at that.

“That’s a start. What do you like in porn?”

“Uh…” Kaito scratched at the back of his head nervously, avoiding eye contact. “I guess...hands and knees is a pretty good position. Seems...hot?”

“Wow even the porn you watch is boring.” Kokichi commented dryly. “But fiiine, I guess I can be boring for you. You better fuck me right though. No pressure, I’ll just castrate you if you mess up!”

Kaito winced at the thought. What a way to nearly kill his boner… He was gathering there wasn’t going to be a lot of foreplay in this, which he was fine with. He was pent up and kind of just wanted to get right to it. If it went well enough maybe there could be other times as well.

“I’ll make sure you feel good, ok?”

Kokichi tilted his head to the side, smiling innocently.

“Good cuz you’re super taking my virginity here.” Without missing a beat he added, “That’s a lie.”

“Wow you almost had me there too.” Kaito said sarcastically. “So I know I gotta prep you, I have lube… Wanna just get on with it?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Prepping Kokichi was less terrifying than Kaito thought. Kokichi was guiding him somewhat, going at a pace that was comfortable for them both while showing Kaito the ways he liked to be touched. Kaito wouldn’t deny Kokichi looked good underneath him, trying to keep his act together. He could tell Kokichi was struggling to keep a straight face at times but the most rewarding part was when Kaito’s fingers brushed against his prostate and Kokichi’s act completely broke.

The moan he let out was enough to make Kaito harder than he’d ever been.

“Fuck you sound hot.”

Kokichi tried to say something snarky but Kaito just hit that spot again and whatever words he’d come up with devolved into moans and whimpers. He whined, pulling Kaito’s hand away from him and sitting up to undress the rest of the way.

“Naked. Now.” Kokichi demanded.

Kaito laughed but complied, shimmying out of his pants and tossing his shirt aside. He looked back at Kokichi and caught the man hesitating. He gave him a curious look.

“You good? If you’re having second thoughts…” He offered.

“It’s not that.” Kokichi sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Look with the way you wanna do this, you’re going to see some things and I just wanna let you know I’m not going to answer any questions so don’t bother asking.”

Kaito fought to keep a neutral face. His instinct was to frown in concern but he honestly couldn’t tell how serious Kokichi was being. So far he hadn’t followed up with a punchline or a classic “That’s a lie!” so he just nodded and waited patiently for Kokichi to feel comfortable enough to take off his own shirt.

Kokichi sighed and took his shirt off, throwing it aside before turning his back to Kaito and getting on his hands and knees like Kaito had wanted him. Kaito was glad Kokichi couldn’t see his reaction. He probably would have hit him for gawking.

For once, Kokichi hadn’t been lying about his warning. His back was covered in scars. Kaito bit down on his lip to keep himself from asking questions, knowing he’d been warned not to, but he couldn’t help but wonder if this was Kokichi trusting him.

“Today would be great, loser.” Kokichi’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“R-Right.” Kaito fumbled and reached for the lube and a condom.

He positioned himself behind Kokichi and paused when a new detail caught his eye. A tattoo on Kokichi’s shoulder blade that read “D.I.C.E”.

“What’s Dice?” Kaito asked before he could stop himself.

“Didn’t I say no questions?” Kokichi’s voice held a lot less venom than Kaito was expecting. “But I guess I can tell you that much. Dice is the name of my super secret evil organization! Of course now that you know that, I’ll have to kill you.”

He looked over his shoulder at Kaito and gave him a wink.

“Ha ha, very funny.”

“Really though, it was a group I was a part of in high school.” Kokichi said, turning back around fully as if to avoid looking at Kaito while he spoke. “We used to meet up in that shitty old factory right down the road after classes, though a lot of the group was older than me.”

Kaito listened closely, running a hand comfortingly up and down Kokichi’s sides. He hadn’t expected Kokichi to be so honest sounding.

“Naturally they realized my talent and made me their leader. We conquered the world’s governments so now I’m basically president of the entire world in secret.” Kokichi finished off with a small, signature laugh. “Sorry that wasn’t as sappy as you were hoping. You know me, I’m too amazing for such a sad backstory!”

“And here I thought we might actually be connecting for a second.” Kaito wasn’t irritated at all, which surprised him. “Alright mister world leader, you ready to get fucked into next week?”

“Oh _Kaito_ , I want to see you try.”

**~*~**

Fucking Kokichi was the best and worst choice of Kaito’s life. The sex had been great and apparently Kokichi felt similarly because he kept coming back for more, offering new ideas and new ways for the pair to find pleasure. Quickly sex became a regular thing between them and Kaito felt eager for it every time. There were cons to this arrangement, however.

First being, it was hard to get one of their apartments empty enough for them to really go at it like they had their first time together. Kaito learned quickly that Kokichi was loud, even with something in his mouth. That didn’t stop him from accepting blow jobs any time Kokichi offered, whether or not Kiyo and Rantaro were home. It was easier to muffle that than Kokichi’s normal volume.

Second, Kokichi had a strict “no intimacy” policy. Kaito wasn’t exactly opposed to that, but it did leave to some awkward moments after sex. Kokichi often had to force himself up and out of Kaito’s bed but he never asked to stay longer and he never spent the night at Kaito’s. Kaito would offer it, but they were just fuck buddies. If Kokichi wasn’t looking to be treated like a lover, he really didn’t feel inclined to go out of his way.

Third, Kokichi was around a lot more than Kaito bargained for. At first he’d thought the arrangement would never work out but for how annoying Kokichi was, he could be somewhat endearing too. Somewhat. Days where Kaito had a rough day at work or in class, Kokichi would surprise him with dinner and a blow job. Days where Kokichi had a rough day were harder to pinpoint but Kaito was learning how to read him the more time passed. Kaito often went back and forth as to if Kokichi’s constant presence in his life now was really a con or a blessing in disguise.

There were awkward moments and sure, Kokichi was annoying as ever, but Kaito was also having some amazing sex and the moments where Kokichi acted like a normal human being were appreciated.

Eventually, January rolled into February and then it was Valentine’s Day. Kaito wasn’t bitter about not having a date. Not at all. He was more bitter to find out the hard way Shuichi and Rantaro both had dates and he didn’t know until the last minute. He’d tried to act happy but he was pretty sure they both saw his shock easily through his act.

Rantaro surprisingly had plans with _Kiyo_. Kiyo of all people. When had that happened? Kaito didn’t even realize they’d gotten so close! Shuichi unsurprisingly had plans with Kaede. Kaito knew it was only a matter of time before those two got together but really? It had to be this Valentine’s Day where Kaito had no one?

Well, no date, but he could always ask for something else to cheer himself up…

So he’d called Kokichi. They didn’t jump into sex right away and Kaito hadn’t minded. He was a bit distracted so he appreciated Kokichi taking his time for once, knowing the man would just leave after the sex was over.

“Oh, Kaito! Your super mopey face almost made me forget I brought you something.” Kokichi said, about a half hour into being over.

Kaito raised an eyebrow. Kokichi, the one who had implemented the no intimacy rule, had brought Kaito something on Valentine’s Day. This man was a living contradiction.

“You did?” Kaito questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Kokichi presented Kaito with a chocolate muffin. It was...deformed, to say the least, but it looked edible. It looked worse than normal store bought muffins but maybe it had been the last one from wherever Kokichi had gotten it from. Well, he wasn’t going to pass on a gift or food so Kaito took it.

“Thanks, I...really wasn’t expecting this.”

“Shumai said you seemed a bit down so I thought I’d be super duper nice and steal that for you.” Kokichi said lightly. “I swear it isn’t poisoned.”

“...I didn’t think it was but now I’m worried.”

“I just put laxatives in it, don’t sweat it!”

Kaito sighed. Of course Kokichi would turn a nice gesture into something weird. He took a bite out of the muffin, knowing better than to believe Kokichi’s claims. It tasted surprisingly good. That reassured Kaito that despite its looks, the muffin was definitely properly made and Kokichi had nothing to do with its creation.

“You like it?” Kokichi questioned eagerly.

“Yeah, actually. It tastes pretty damn good.”

“That’s good! I’ll tell Kaede that then.”

“Kaede made this?”

Kokichi snickered.

“Yeah, she made a bunch for Shuichi but that one was just so ugly it reminded me of you. I had to steal it!”

“You ass!!”

Kaito, reluctantly and somewhat guiltily, ate the rest of the muffin. Stolen or not it was really good and it was too late to give it back to Kaede now… Kaito got his revenge by fucking Kokichi senseless afterwards. Kokichi left with a limp in his walk that definitely wasn’t there before, leaving Kaito smirking triumphantly.

It was sometime later in the day he got a text from Kaede.

**Hey Kaito! Did Kokichi bring you the muffins?**

He was a bit confused by her message. Hadn’t Kokichi stolen one from her? Shouldn’t she have been mad?

_Yeah he brought one. It was really good, sorry that he stole it from you._

**Stole it?**

_Didn’t he steal it from you?_

**I helped him all morning making a batch. He didn’t steal anything, this time!**

Kaito stared at the message for a bit longer than necessary. So Kokichi had made some muffins himself and thought to bring Kaito one? He let out a small “huh” before setting his phone aside. No matter how hard he tried, Kaito couldn’t understand half the things Kokichi did. His motives made no sense to Kaito so he knew he shouldn’t try to understand this situation unless he wanted a headache…

Unless…

He silently hoped Kokichi had been lying about the laxatives.

**~*~**

The sounds of skin against skin and Kokichi’s loud moans of pleasure filled Kaito’s room. Kaito was so close, so close. Kokichi had already cum and Kaito was nearly there. He just needed that extra push. He growled, roughly snapping his hips against Kokichi’s making the smaller man tremble with every thrust.

“F-Fuck Kaito-- fucking-- Can’t…!” He rambled breathlessly, “Cum already, for fucks sake just cum!”

“Beg for it.” Kaito demanded, surprising himself at how confident he sounded.

Kokichi let out a surprised moan of his own, shuddering at Kaito’s tone.

“ _Please_ ,” Kokichi didn’t even hesitate. “Please cum in me, _please, please_ …!”

“Fuck yeah… Oh _fuck_ …!” Kaito tensed, cumming intensely to the sweet sound of Kokichi’s moans and begging. He stayed still for a moment, letting himself come down from his high before pulling out and disposing of the condom. He flopped down on the bed, running a hand roughly through his hair. “Shit that was good.”

Kokichi grumbled something, muffled by the pillow he currently had his face buried in.

“What was that?”

“I said you’re fucking crazy, Momta.” Kokichi whined, “My ass hurts. You were too rough.”

“Bullshit.” Kaito said, sitting up and smirking. “You liked it.”

“ _Hah_ … Yeah, I did. You should go hard like that more often.” Kokichi admitted. There was a small, comfortable pause before Kokichi cleared his throat. “...I should...get going.”

“R-Right.”

Kokichi somewhat reluctantly forced himself off Kaito’s bed and began getting dressed. Kaito could tell he was tired but he didn’t say a word. He watched quietly as Kokichi dressed himself, staring at the still mysterious scars on Kokichi’s back, the Dice tattoo, and another little tattoo Kaito noticed on Kokichi’s rib cage some time ago.

Unlike the Dice tattoo, Kokichi wouldn’t explain that one. Kaito could tell it was important, whatever it meant.

Once Kokichi was dressed, Kaito threw some pants on and walked Kokichi to the door. He decided to go to the kitchen to get a drink but jumped when he saw Rantaro sitting at the table with a cup of tea, a curious expression on his face.

“Was that Kokichi?” Rantaro asked, taking a sip from his tea. “I didn’t realize you two were so close.”

“Uh… Well, we aren’t really.”

“I’m sure.”

Was Rantaro judging him? Kaito shifted awkwardly where he stood.

“We’re just fucking.” Kaito blurted. “I mean...it’s just sex. We aren’t close or anything like that. We aren’t even exclusive.”

Rantaro gave him a small smile.

“You don’t need to explain yourself, Kaito. I’m not mad. It just...explains why you’ve been so eager to get me and Kiyo out of the apartment lately. Kind of glad Kiyo’s still out. You two were pretty loud.” Rantaro said in a teasing tone.

Kaito felt the tension leave his body. He sighed in relief and took a seat across from Rantaro at the table.

“I’m still surprised you can stand to be around Kokichi for so long. I thought you didn’t like him.”

“He’s better when you have a way to shut him up.”

“You seem a bit happier lately. Is the sex that good?”

Kaito gave him a look. He’s known Rantaro for ages. He knows when Rantaro is beating around the bush or avoiding asking something outright.

“He’s pretty good in bed.” Kaito said blandly. “I’m definitely not complaining.”

“That’s good.”

“What are you getting at?”

Rantaro faked a confused look.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Just be straight with me, Rantaro. Say what’s on your mind. I get enough mind games from Kokichi, I don’t need ‘em from you too.” Maybe Kaito was a bit rough with his wording but still. He didn’t like it when Rantaro was like this. He could be just as scheming as Kokichi at times.

“I’m just saying I’m happy you’ve found something that works for you.” Rantaro said, standing and giving his friend a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t think too hard about it, ok?”

**~*~**

The day was going by unbelievably slowly. Kaito was over at Shuichi’s studying but he couldn’t focus and really? The day felt like it was never ending. He was tired and stressed and part of him just wanted to go home but he knew he wouldn’t be able to see Shuichi for the rest of the week so he powered through it.

Kaito glanced up at Shuichi, noting his friend hardly seemed to be doing much better. Maybe it was just universally a bad day.

“Hey, maybe--” Kaito’s offer to just stop studying and do something else was quickly cut off by the door to the apartment opening and closing.

Kokichi waltzed in all sunshine and happiness. Of course he’d be happy when everyone else was tired and miserable. He was probably happy _because_ everyone else was miserable, the sadistic bastard. Despite his seemingly peppy attitude, he paused at the sight of Kaito and Shuichi.

“Jeez, who died?”

“Not now Kokichi.” Kaito muttered.

Kokichi rolled his eyes and ignored them both, walking into the living room to sit with them.

“Come on don’t be so down, I’m here now! And me being here makes things like, a thousand times better by default.”

“In your dreams.”

“Kaito you’re so mean to meee!”

Shuichi sighed heavily, catching the attention of both of his friends. It was obvious he wasn’t in the mood to deal with them bickering right now. Kaito bit back the urge to snap at Kokichi and just let silence overcome the trio. Kokichi, naturally, got restless first.

It took under five minutes for him to hop off the couch and begin rummaging around in the kitchen. Shuichi dreaded whatever Kokichi was doing, figuring he’d have to clean up after his roommate later. He was about to ask Kokichi to just stop when the smaller man returned with some grape Panta and popcorn in hand. He offered the soda to Shuichi with a smile.

“What’s this for?” Shuichi questioned.

“You look like you need a break and I just remembered one of those crime shows you really like is having a marathon. I thought you’d want to watch it soooo… Popcorn and soda is in order for something like that, right?” Kokichi sat the popcorn and drinks down on the coffee table before grabbing a blanket from off the back of the couch and covering himself with it.

He settled himself between Shuichi and Kaito, flipping the channel to the marathon he’d spoken about. Shuichi smiled softly, something Kaito and Kokichi didn’t miss.

Kaito put his and Shuichi’s studying materials away and flopped back onto the couch to settle down for the marathon. He had no idea what the show was about really, but it didn’t matter. Shuichi enjoyed himself and so he was content.

He listened to Kokichi and Shuichi chat about what the episode twist was going to be, who the culprit of the episode was, and all kinds of things for a while. He realized this was probably the first time he’d been so at ease with Shuichi and Kokichi’s friendship. This was also the first time Kokichi seemed to do something nice purely for the sake of someone else.

After a while, the chatting died down. Kaito looked over after a bit of silence and saw Shuichi had fallen asleep, leaning against Kokichi. He was proud of himself when he didn’t feel that pang of jealousy he used to feel.

“This was nice of you to do.” He said in a soft voice.

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Kokichi asked, playing oblivious.

“He needed this today.”

“Yeah, I guess. It was a win-win though. He gets to relax and I get to cuddle with my beloved Shumai!” Kokichi grinned and batted his eyelashes innocently at Kaito. “Though it’d be great if my super best fuck buddy would get in on the cuddling too.”

Kaito was a bit surprised at the offer, but he wasn’t going to say no. He’d had a rough day too and...well, everyone needed some soft moments now and then. He coughed, trying to distract from the fact Kokichi had caught him off guard and leaned against him, just a little...

Kaito had no idea when he fell asleep. He just knew when he woke up it was to Kaede’s phone flash taking a picture. He groggily opened his eyes to find he’d somehow ended up resting his head in Kokichi’s lap. Shuichi was resting against Kokichi’s shoulder and Kokichi was out like a light. Kaito grumbled and looked up at Kaede.

She looked incredibly smug.

“I see you boys are getting along well.”

Slowly, the situation dawned on Kaito. She had _evidence_ . _Oh no_.

“...You tell a soul and I swear--”

“I already sent the picture to Rantaro.”

“...You’re evil.” Kaito muttered, hiding his face in Kokichi’s lap. “You’re an evil woman.”

**~*~**

Kaito’s birthday came around quicker than he’d been ready for. It sucked that his birthday happened to fall on the same day as a big test so he didn’t really feel like partying after. He felt more like punching something. He was glad he hung out with Shuichi and Rantaro before his test as opposed to after; he knew he wasn’t going to be much fun the rest of the night…

He sighed, walking home and into his apartment. It seemed empty. Lights were off, the television was off… He’d expected Rantaro to be here when he got home even if they didn’t make any set plans. Kaito tried to convince himself he wasn’t disappointed but he was. He just frowned and decided to make it an early night.

He reached his door and stopped, hearing some motion from inside his bedroom. Nothing big, just what sounded like shuffling and a drawer opening and closing. Confused, he opened his door.

“Kokichi?” He questioned immediately when he saw the other man.

“Oh hey Kaito, you’re home early!”

“What are you doing in my room? How did you even get in here?” Kaito asked, closing the door behind him as he stepped into his room.

Kokichi flashed him a wide grin before holding up a box of condoms and-- a dildo?!

“I was just about to get ready for your birthday present that’s all!”

Kaito choked on air.

“What?!”

“I thought it’d be super hot if I tied myself up and waited for you to come home but I guess I got started too late.” Kokichi pouted. “Then I had to make sure we had condoms for the rest of the night, which we have like two by the way, I guess that’ll work. And don’t worry about Kiyo and Rantaro they won’t be home until tomorrow morning so we have all night!”

Slowly Kaito was putting the pieces of Kokichi’s scheme together.

“So you asked them to leave?”

“I persuaded them to.” Kokichi admitted, sitting on the bed and tossing the dildo aside for now. Kaito noticed a bag next to his bed that must’ve been Kokichi’s. He was oddly curious as to what else Kokichi might have brought with them. “Rantaro told me you were having a rough day so I thought maybe this would make a pervert like you happy.”

“You’re the one who brought a dildo.” Kaito reminded him, raising an eyebrow. “I think that makes you more perverted than me.”

“Only a pervert would accept sex as their birthday gift.” Kokichi said, sticking his tongue out at Kaito.

Suddenly Kaito was reminded of how worn out he’d felt just a few minutes earlier. Most of that was gone now, thanks to Kokichi. His irritation had faded away and in its place Kaito’s libido was beginning to shine.

“After the day I’ve had I could use some stress relief.” Kaito muttered to himself. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

Kokichi smiled.

“I was going to leave that up to you, actually.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep! I thought since it was my dearest Kaito’s birthday he should get to decide. I do have one thing I’d like to throw out there, just as a thought.” Kokichi motioned for Kaito to come closer, so the man did. He gave Kokichi a curious look as he approached.

“And what’s that thought of yours?”

Kokichi bit his bottom lip, barely biting back a mischievous laugh. From where he sat on the bed, Kokichi reached out and slowly wrapped his arms around Kaito, pulling him close and pressing a small kiss to the crotch of Kaito’s pants.

“I was thinking,” He began in a sultry tone, “That I want to give you complete control over my body tonight.”

Kaito shuddered at the thought.

“I’ll let you do anything.” Kokichi continued, beginning to undo Kaito’s belt. “You can use my mouth however you want, you can fuck me however you want. You can tie me up and edge me for hours until I’m so horny for you I can’t talk, if that’s what you want.”

Every offer sounded more and more tempting. He watched Kokichi toss his belt aside and stood still as the man began ridding Kaito of his pants.

“I’ll beg for it if you want me to.”

Kaito groaned softly.

“Is that what you want, Kaito? For me to beg?”

“ _Yes_.” Kaito admitted quickly, “Beg for it. You sound so fuckin’ good when you do that.”

Kokichi’s eyes lit up. He pulled back from Kaito so he could meet his eyes. Kaito noticed a light blush already coating Kokichi’s cheeks. He fully intended to make Kokichi blush deep red by the end of the night and fuck him so good his begging wouldn’t be an act or a way to tease Kaito.

“Please.” Kokichi whispered. “Please give me your cock, Kaito. I want it. I want you in me.”

Kaito couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He pushed Kokichi down onto the bed, kissing him roughly, all while Kokichi begged for him to touch more and use him. It was all too much for him initially but he settled into the role easy enough. He had no idea how long he and Kokichi went at it for. He knew he’d made Kokichi cum more than once and that the man was a shivering mess by the end of it all.

Kokichi barely moved as Kaito cleaned them off with a damp washcloth. Despite Kokichi’s no intimacy rules, the man wasn’t making any moves to get up and leave. Kaito almost doubted he could if he wanted to. Once they were clean, he tossed the washcloth aside and pulled Kokichi close to him, spooning him from behind.

“You’re sticky.” Kokichi complained quietly.

“Bullshit I am.” Kaito murmured. “I just cleaned us off, ass.”

“Doesn’t matter, you’re still sticky.” Kokichi sounded tired. He sighed and closed his eyes, “I should...get going, huh?”

“...I don’t want you to.” Kaito admitted, holding him closer. “Besides you look pretty comfortable right now. I’d feel bad if you left.”

He expected Kokichi to force himself up and leave anyways, or maybe make a joke about how Kaito was getting soft on him. He didn’t expect Kokichi to snuggle closer and nod in agreement with him.

“I’ll stay then. But only because it’s your birthday.”

“Maybe if you wanted to...you could stay whenever you felt like. It doesn’t have to be a special occasion.” Kaito began, but he could tell this conversation was going to go nowhere. Kokichi already dozed off in his arms.

Kaito smiled to himself and closed his eyes. They could have this talk later. For now, he just wanted to enjoy the moment while it lasted.


	2. You Can’t Have Peace Without a War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst ahead! I wanted to write some about Kaito and Kokichi's pasts a bit and what better way to deliver that than with angst? Things get sappy as well, but hey it's what they deserve in the end.  
> My cat almost ruined my progress on this fic by stepping all over my keyboard-- thank Komaeda that didn't happen...

Kaito was so thankful the semester was over. Summer time meant he could go home to his grandparents for a while and spend some time off work with Rantaro and Shuichi. He was set to leave at the end of the week with Rantaro, though he felt a little bad leaving Kiyo alone in the apartment all summer. He hadn’t even started packing yet, thanks to Kokichi.

He’d offered to come over and help Kaito pack but quickly it just turned into sex and watching dumb videos on youtube afterwards. Some cat video just ended so Kokichi set his phone aside and decided to curl up under the blankets more. Kaito was pretty used to Kokichi staying after sex now. Most times, it was actually pretty nice to have him stick around.

“Sorry we didn’t get any packing done today.” Kokichi said and he almost sounded genuine enough, but Kaito knew better.

“No you aren’t. You probably came over just to make sure I didn’t get a damn thing packed.” Kaito grumbled, but he wasn’t mad.

“Aww you got me. I’m not so good at lying after mind blowing sex, am I?”

Kaito shrugged before stretching and moving to spoon Kokichi. Normally, Kokichi complained about Kaito being too hot and sticky but he just let it happen this time.

“So what are you doing for the summer? Going home or anything?” Kaito asked casually.

Despite so much time having passed, Kokichi still refused to open up about his home life. Kaito wondered how long he could keep the lies going but every time he was asked he had a new story so he wasn’t getting his hopes up on the truth anytime soon. He could gather Kokichi didn’t like the concept of going home so he probably didn’t have a good relationship with his parents. _If he has parents_ , Kaito’s mind filled in. Kokichi did still lean on the tales about being an orphan quite a lot.

“I’ll be manning the apartment while Kaede and Shuichi are gone.” Kokichi replied after a moment. “I’m gonna have like, giant parties every week and they’ll have to find out what they missed out on the hard way!”

Kaito laughed.

“You almost sound bitter you’ll be alone.”

“I’m not bitter.” Kokichi pouted. “I’m gonna have tons of fun without them.”

“Right, right of course.”

Kokichi huffed and frowned. He managed to wiggle out of Kaito’s hold so he could roll over and face his partner. He was still pouting and definitely at least a little bitter, Kaito noted.

“You all suck for leaving me alone. I’m a fragile, delicate person I need constant love and attention or I’ll die.” Kokichi worked up some fake tears and sniffled. “You all just want me to crumble to dust and die a horrible death, don’t you!”

“Yes that is exactly why we all go home to our families for the summer.” Kaito said, flicking Kokichi on the forehead. “You’re just being a brat, you know.”

Kokichi moved to bite Kaito’s hand but missed. Thankfully.

“I actually don’t care that I’ll have the apartment to myself.” Suddenly all of the prior dramatics were gone, “I’ll probably be spending most of my time with Miu and Keebo so it isn’t a big deal.”

“They aren’t going home either?”

“Nope.” Kokichi answered. “Our jobs already know our situation so there was no point in asking for a long vacation if we weren’t going anywhere. Plus we already signed up for a summer class together so we’ll be doing that. Fun, right?”

Kaito cringed at the thought of summer classes. He could never.

“Well at least you’ll be keeping yourself busy.”

“Yep, I’ll be super busy.”

Kaito jumped at the feeling of Kokichi’s hand suddenly groping his ass.

“How _busy_ are you gonna be, Kaito?” Kokichi asked in a whispered voice.

“You’re insatiable.”

“I know. But you love it.”

He did. He really, really did. He didn’t complain once as Kokichi eased him onto his back and straddled him. Kaito let himself have all the fun he could while Kokichi was still there. He’d definitely miss their meetups while he was home…

Miss them he did. Kaito was glad to see his grandparents but his boner wasn’t appreciating the separation. Maybe he’d gotten a little too used to Kokichi being around so much… Kaito had made it a point to try to distract himself and his libido. He was able to meet up with Rantaro so that should do the trick.

The pair got together and went for boba tea, chatting while they did. Shuichi was occupied with his uncle that day so it would just be the two of them. Rantaro asked about how Kaito’s grandparents were doing and he told them all about how despite being old they still wanted to go out and do new things. Kaito asked Rantaro how his home situation was going and Rantaro gave him a very quick “It’s fine” that told him everything was in fact not fine and still very tense. Kaito wondered when or if things would ever get better for Rantaro.

Eventually they ended up back at Kaito’s. They watched some shows for a while before Kaito got hungry and went to the kitchen to get himself a snack. He heard his phone go off as he left so he asked Rantaro to check who it was for him.

Rantaro picked up the phone, taking a sip from his tea. The sender was Kokichi. Interesting…

“It’s from Kokichi.” Rantaro said.

Kaito poked his head out from the kitchen.

“Huh? He’s barely messaged me all break. What does he want?”

Rantaro opened the message and choked on his boba. Kaito, somewhat alarmed, rushed over. He heard his phone go off once, twice, three more times. Rantaro opened each one of Kokichi’s messages and just _stared_.

“What?” Kaito asked, worried.

“Uh. It’s his birthday today.” Rantaro began, eyeing one of the messages. “How does that position even work…?”

“ _What_?” Kaito repeated.

“He’s having a real good time.”

Finally, Rantaro showed Kaito the messages. They were absolute filthy pictures of Kokichi. And Miu, and some with Keebo instead of Miu. The blissed out expression on Kokichi’s face told Kaito he was definitely having a good time. He blinked, trying to give himself a moment to process what he was seeing. Another picture came through and Kaito grabbed the phone before Rantaro could see it.

The picture of Kokichi sucking Keebo off should not have been as hot as Kaito found it. He whined, both in distress over the situation and the fact that he wasn’t there in person for this. He scrolled through all the messages Kokichi had been sending and saw that Rantaro was right, it had started with an innocent enough,

_It’s Kokichi’s birthday today!_

Followed by a bunch of heart and eggplant emojis. Kaito gathered Miu probably wrote that text message before sending the photos. Speaking of, another one came through. Kaito nearly threw his phone; he wasn’t ready for it. This time it was the three of them with Miu in the middle and Kokichi fucking her from behind. Keebo was in front, face buried in Miu’s chest sucking on her breasts.

Rantaro coughed, bringing his friend back down to earth.

“Are you going to share with the class or?” Rantaro asked, teasing.

Kaito’s face went red. Rantaro had already seen so what was the point in him asking this time around?

“Obviously you see something you like.” Rantaro took a sip from his boba, thankfully not choking on it this time. “Kokichi looks like a lot of fun in the bedroom. I see why you like him so much.”

“We aren’t doing this, Rantaro.”

“Doing what?”

Kaito glared at his friend, pointedly ignoring his phone as it went off again. He wasn’t going to check it, not if his life depended on it. Rantaro sipped on his tea, giving Kaito a look that said “Do it, I dare you” but Kaito wasn’t going to lose. His phone went off again. He let out a distressed noise, itching to check it. Rantaro’s gaze was piercing.

As always, Kaito gave in.

“Just a peak.” Kaito said, “Just one little peak.”

Rantaro smirked and moved so he could watch Kaito open the new messages. First was a selfie of Miu who was very obviously naked holding up a peace sign with Kokichi and Keebo passed out in the background. The second was a video of Miu and Kokichi. Kaito hesitated, so Rantaro took the initiative and pressed play.

_“Oh fuck yeah, fuck me harder Kokichi!”_ Miu was screaming.

_“You like that don’t you, you filthy whore--”_

Kaito panicked, locked his phone, and tossed it to the other side of the couch. He simply couldn’t handle it right now. Rantaro was right there and if he watched that video Kaito knew he was going to pop a boner. Kokichi’s voice had a very strong effect on him and _holy hell_ him calling Miu a filthy whore in _that_ voice was enough for Kaito to be in the mood already.

Rantaro broke out laughing at his friends reaction.

“So this is what you two do when Kiyo and I are out!” Rantaro said in between his laughter, “Does he call you things like that?”

“N-no!”

“Oh so you call him a filthy whore then?”

“R-Rantaro don’t say things like that!”

Rantaro rolled his eyes and whipped out his phone, typing away while Kaito calmed himself. The shit eating grin on Rantaro’s face gave him away. He was plotting something.

“Who are you texting?”

“Hmm? Shuichi.” Rantaro lied.

“Rantaro!”

“I’m just telling Kokichi that I hope he had a good birthday and that he looks really nice covered in cu--”

Kaito covered his ears, trying desperately to keep his mind from going back to those pictures. He managed to succeed for the remainder of the time Rantaro was there, thankfully. Once his friend was gone, however… Well, that video deserved a thorough look through, right? He sought out pleasure from his oldest friend--his right hand-- and just barely remembered to wish Kokichi a happy birthday before passing out.

**~*~**

Sometimes Kaito really hated his university. Apparently something had gone wrong with one of his assignments and so they needed him back on campus to clear the situation up. In the middle of his summer break. He couldn’t exactly say no, so he’d made the trip and gotten things settled as quickly as he could.

Shuichi had messaged him earlier in the day asking if he could stop by the apartment just to check on things. Kaito had a spare key so he’d said sure and currently was on his way over. He was fairly certain Kokichi hadn’t burned the place down but still...didn’t hurt to check.

Kaito had no sooner walked in when he heard a loud moan. He froze at the doorway, knowing he should just turn back now and tell Shuichi everything was fine, the apartment was obviously still in one piece, nothing to see there. But he didn’t. He shut the door as quietly as he could and peeked into the living room to find Keebo leaning against the back of the couch, hand fisted in Kokichi’s hair as the other man sucked him off.

The familiar feeling of jealousy crept into him. His mind was going a mile a minute so he couldn’t quite process why, he just knew it wasn’t the same feeling he got when he saw Kokichi with other people in pictures. Kokichi with Keebo and Miu in those pictures had been hot. Kokichi with Keebo in real life was still very hot but Kaito just felt...territorial.

Kokichi’s desperate moans were only muffled by Keebo’s cock and he gripped at Keebo’s hips as if he were the only thing keeping him grounded. It set a fire somewhere deep in Kaito that he couldn’t describe.

_He wanted to be the only one who could do that to Kokichi_.

Keebo’s moans grew in pitch, indicating he was close. He swore loudly, eyes opening just a bit to look down at Kokichi.

“I’m close, I’m gonna-- Ko--” It was then Keebo decided to tilt his head to the side. He caught Kaito out of the corner of his eyes and froze. “Kaito!”

Kokichi pulled away, angrily.

“Wrong name ass--” Kokichi began but was cut off by Keebo’s hands tightening his grip on his hair to a painful degree. “ _Ow_!”

Keebo jerked his hands away but couldn’t bring himself to do much else. He stared anxiously at Kaito, wanting the man to either say something or go away. He couldn’t read what was going through Kaito’s head. Kokichi followed Keebo’s gaze and raised his eyebrows when he finally noticed Kaito.

“Oh.” He had that unreadable expression on his face that Kaito hated.

“Yeah, oh.” Kaito bit out.

Kokichi’s expression quickly became one of confusion.

“I’m gonna go.” Kaito forced himself to say, turning away from the two. He felt about ready to strangle something and he just didn’t know why. It was pissing him off.

“You could always join in.” Kokichi offered.

Kaito didn’t give him an answer. He walked away and sent Shuichi a text that everything was fine at the apartment. He waited two minutes before texting Rantaro, needing someone to vent to or get advice from.

He didn’t like what his friend had to say.

**Maybe you like Kokichi more than you thought.**

**There’s no reason to be ashamed if you want to make your relationship more exclusive or something deeper than that.**

**… Kaito?**

Kaito didn’t bother to respond. On the way back he flipped through the pictures Miu had sent just days before, wondering why he couldn’t have just reacted to the real thing as well as he had the pictures. Despite the pictures still being incredibly attractive, he still felt that bitterness and jealousy burning inside him.

Upon further inspection of the photos, and thinking with the right head this time, Kaito did notice something he hadn’t before. Miu’s back in one of the photos was visible and he could see what looked like scars scattered down her back. He noticed she had a tramp stamp as well, of course she does, but recognized the design as the same one on Kokichi’s rib cage. He frowned.

Obviously, Miu and Kokichi were closer than he’d anticipated. It wasn’t a stretch to wonder if Keebo had a tattoo as well. He sighed heavily, locking his phone and shoving it in his pocket. The sex was one thing, he could get over it if Rantaro’s words weren’t running through his mind. But the matching tattoos made him feel like he wasn’t important, somehow.

Shamefully, he gave Rantaro the silent treatment for two days. Even more shamefully he refused to answer any of Kokichi’s messages the rest his time home.

**~*~**

Coming back to the apartment was supposed to be nice. Kaito loved his grandparents but he was missed working, surprisingly. He missed being productive. There was still a few more weeks of summer break left but at least he’d be able to occupy himself with his job again. Of course coming back from home wasn’t all good news. He hadn’t spoken to Kokichi since he’d walked in on him and Keebo.

He knew he was being petty and probably a huge jerk but it didn’t make him want to answer any of Kokichi’s messages. He hadn’t even told him he was coming home from break early with Rantaro… Shuichi or Rantaro must have tipped him off anyways because there he was, lounging on the couch with Kiyo when Kaito returned.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” Kokichi said in greeting. He didn’t turn to look at Kaito, but he wouldn’t be shocked if Kokichi had a bitter expression on his face.

“Welcome home.” Kiyo said, standing and helping Kaito and Rantaro with their bags. He offered to take them to their rooms for them, but Rantaro insisted on helping. The two walked off leaving Kaito with Kokichi and he couldn’t help but feel like this had been planned.

Kokichi sighed and sat up properly so he could turn to face Kaito,

“Have a fun break?” He asked, sounding stiff and rehearsed.

“Yeah, I guess.” Before he could stop himself he added, “Probably not as fun as what you’ve been up to.”

Kokichi kept his face neutral.

“I haven’t been with anyone since you walked in on me and Keeboy.” Kokichi said, answering Kaito’s unasked question. “I’m not an idiot, I could tell it bothered you.”

“It didn’t.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes.

“Riiight, which is why you’ve been ignoring me for like, two weeks now.”

“I’m not ignoring you.”

The smaller man let out an antagonizing laugh.

“Bullshit.” He hopped off the couch and frowned, standing face to face with Kaito. “What did I do to make you mad this time? I know I piss you off all the time but I really don’t get what I did to deserve you avoiding me.”

Kaito bit his lip, that nasty jealous feeling returning to him. There was no way he could properly describe his feelings so he decided against trying to. If he came off as too sappy and, god forbid, Rantaro had been right about him just wanting to make things more serious, he felt like Kokichi would tease him or blow it off like a joke. Maybe even lead him on just to reject him later.

“You didn’t do anything and I’m not avoiding you.” Kaito said, avoiding eye contact with Kokichi.

“You’re a horrible liar.”

“I’m not lying!” Kaito snapped, frowning. “Just drop it. I’m not gonna talk about any of this shit with someone like you, so unless you’re down for a quick fuck this conversation is over.”

Kaito didn’t know what he’d been expecting. He was being an asshole and he knew it but for some reason he wasn’t expecting the very clear, stern,

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said no. I’m not gonna do anything with you if you’re gonna be a dick about things.”

“I’m not being a dick about anything--”

“You _are_ , and it’s really annoying.” Kokichi sounded bored, which only served to fuel the fire of Kaito’s anger. “Call me when you wanna stop being a dick but until then, I’m done.”

Kokichi moved to walk past Kaito only for the taller man to grab him roughly by the arm. He stared at Kaito, first with shock in eyes but it quickly turned into something like a mix of caution and disgust.

“Let go.”

“No!”

Kokichi tried to pull his arm away but Kaito only gripped tighter.

“Stop being a fucking asshole, Momota!” Kokichi shouted, definitely loud enough to alert Rantaro and Kiyo that things weren’t exactly going well. Kaito pretended he didn’t see Kokichi wince when he tightened his grip yet again. He pretended he didn’t feel a very familiar burst of rage burning inside of him. He knew the signs he was going to blow up over this but he actively chose to ignore every single one of them and for what?

Kokichi moved first. He either raised his other hand to either smack or push Kaito away; Kaito couldn’t tell before he grabbed Kokichi’s other wrist and shoved him roughly against the nearest wall, towering over him. Kokichi looked up at him, wide eyed and speechless.

Kaito realized with a sickening pleasure that maybe this was what he wanted. To just get Kokichi to a point where he couldn’t control the conversation so easily. He felt disgusted with himself for feeling the slightest hint of satisfaction at Kokichi’s shocked expression.

“Don’t tell me what to do, _Ouma_!” Kaito growled.

Kokichi took way too long to reply.

“...Are you going to hit me?” He asked, finally.

Kaito’s expression fell. _Was he_?

“N-no--”

“Yes, you are.” Kokichi said quietly. “If you keep this up you’re going to hit me and I swear to whatever god there is if you do that, you will _never_ see me again, Momota.”

Kaito felt dizzy as he finally released Kokichi and took a step back. He didn’t know when Rantaro had shown back up or how much he’d seen and heard, he just knew his friend was pulling him further away from Kokichi and profusely apologizing for Kaito’s behavior. Kaito let himself be placed in the kitchen without any struggle. He assumed Kokichi left based on the sound of the door slamming closed.

Rantaro was giving him a look of concern and disappointment, but there was no anger. Kaito knew he deserved anger, though, and felt guilt creeping inside him the longer Rantaro looked at him. Kaito looked away, cursing under his breath.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to.” Rantaro said softly, taking a seat next to Kaito. “What was all that?”

“I don’t know.” Kaito admitted. “I was just angry and I knew I was getting mad but I didn’t stop. I didn’t want to.”

“Do you think you were going to blackout?” His friends voice was cautious.

Kaito bit his lip and nodded. It had been years since he’d gotten help for his anger issues. Years since his last blackout where he’d punched a kid so hard he broke his jaw. Rantaro simply mouthed a very quiet “oh” before a tense silence fell over the two. Rantaro had been there for Kaito’s last incident. He knew what Kaito was capable of when he was mad.

“He didn’t even do anything that bad.” Kaito admitted. “I was being a fucking jerk.”

“You were.” Rantaro agreed. “You’ve been pretty rude to him the past two weeks. This definitely doesn’t help your case…”

Rantaro somehow managed to not sound insulting, it was a special skill of his.

“I think it’s best if you don’t talk to him for a few days. Give him some time to work his mind around...all of this.” Rantaro offered. “And then you need to explain yourself.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” Kaito sighed, running a hand roughly through his hair. “I’m really, really sorry you had to see that.”

Rantaro hummed, carefully considering his response. In the end he pulled Kaito in for a hug, sighing quietly.

“You’ve been there for me for as long as I’m able to remember, and for a long time before that. You’re one of my best friends and I know you aren’t perfect. You make mistakes and that’s ok. This is a setback, it doesn’t have to define who you are in the present.”

Kaito nodded, feeling his eyes fill up with tears. He held Rantaro closer, tighter.

“I love you like a brother. Shuichi loves you too, so does Kiyo, and I’m sure Kokichi does too. You made a mistake but if you explain yourself and give him time, I’m sure he’ll understand, ok? He likes you too much to leave, at least without an explanation first.”

“I hope you’re right… I really, really do.”

Rantaro pulled away with a small smile.

“I know I’m right. Trust me on this.”

Kaito had no other choice but to trust Rantaro’s intuition. He’d do as he was advised; give Kokichi a while to process things and in the meantime, he’d try to come up with a way to explain himself to Kokichi. He knew his outburst shouldn’t be forgotten or forgiven so easily, but all he wanted was a chance to prove that outburst wasn’t indicative of the person he had become.

**~*~**

It took a week and a half for Kokichi to agree to meet up with Kaito. He’d avoided Kaito’s messages and even when Kaito had stopped by Shuichi’s, Kokichi made it a point to never come out of his room. The one time he’d stopped by unannounced had went poorly. Some douchey looking blonde with glasses was just leaving and based on the dark purple bruises on the man’s neck, Kaito had a good idea of what he’d been there for. Kokichi had given him a look as if to dare him to say something but he hadn’t. He’d turned and left like he knew he should have when he first got angry at seeing Kokichi with someone else.

When Kokichi finally was ready to meet up, he’d texted Kaito the address of a nice coffee shop on campus and a time. Kaito found the place easily, ordered himself a drink and waited for Kokichi to show up. Nearly fifteen minutes past the agreed upon time, the man finally showed. Kaito had gotten worried he’d changed his mind, but in retrospect he probably deserved the fear of being stood up.

“Sorry I’m late.” Kokichi said, sitting down. Without missing a beat he added, “That’s a lie. I’m not sorry at all actually.”

Kaito winced.

“R-right… So, uh, thanks for meeting with me. You really didn’t have to.”

Kokichi scoffed.

“I know I didn’t have to. But you were getting pretty pathetic so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to turn you down once and for all.” Kokichi’s tone was venomous. Even when Kaito visibly deflated he didn’t hold back. “I have half a mind to tell you to fuck off and never talk to me again. I probably should just do that and get it over with.”

Kaito must’ve looked pretty miserable at Kokichi’s words. The man sighed and his expression softened ever so slightly. Kaito would have missed the change if he hadn’t been exposed to Kokichi so much in the past few months.

“I’m not going to do that.” Kokichi muttered. “Stop looking like I just kicked your puppy, ok? It’s not a good look on you.”

“Sorry…” Kaito said. He paused before continuing, “I’m sorry about everything.”

“I gathered as much. I don’t forgive you though. Not yet. I don’t understand what set you off like that and I hate not understanding things like that.” Kokichi admitted, sounding completely honest.

Kaito realized this might be their first heart to heart if things went well. He knew he was on shaky ground but he wanted to be honest with Kokichi and in turn, hoped Kokichi would be honest with him too about where they stood after this.

“It wasn’t anything you did.” Kaito admitted. “I was mad at you for stupid, selfish reasons and I...I regret what I did. I’m not really good at admitting this but uh… I used to have a lot of anger issues as a kid. I’d blow up over dumb shit or bottle things up and then...blackout. I’d hit someone or something and not remember it. Those times were the worst.”

Kokichi kept his expression neutral, but he was listening. Kaito appreciated that much.

“Sometimes it was bad enough that if I thought someone looked at me wrong, I’d threaten them. Shuichi and Rantaro helped me a lot with it but in the end it wasn’t enough. It uh...got real bad, after Rantaro’s accident. When we were fifteen, he got into a car crash and almost died. Some kid decided to be a smart ass about it and I hit him so hard I broke his jaw.”

Kaito broke himself off to take a sip of his drink and gather his thoughts. He was thankful Kokichi was being patient with him, he just wanted to make sure he didn’t mess this up somehow.

“After that I needed anger management classes.” Kaito said in a softer tone. “I’ve been out of them for a while now but I guess I… No, I _know_ I ignored the signs I was gonna freak out at you. I’m sorry for that and I’m sorry I acted the way I did. You didn’t deserve any of that and I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

Kokichi nodded, but stayed silent for a minute. He seemed to be processing Kaito’s story very carefully. Kaito didn’t want to rush him, but he was getting increasingly anxious the longer Kokichi stayed quiet.

“I um. I. Don’t have a good relationship with violence.” Kokichi admitted in a somewhat forced tone. “I’m not good at things like this, either. Telling the truth and nothing but the truth and all that.”

“You don’t have to say anything if you aren’t comfortable.” Kaito said.

Kokichi shook his head.

“No, I want to. I’m just not good at it.” He gave a bitter laugh before clearing his throat and trying again. “You’ve seen the...scars. I’d say they came from some big prison escape but that’d be a lie, so…” He gave a frustrated noise, mostly at himself, before trying yet again. “You freaked out and I couldn't tell what happened. You were avoiding me and acting like I did something but I didn’t remember pranking you or provoking you that time. I know when I deserve it, and that wasn’t one of those times.”

Kaito nodded.

“You didn’t do anything, like I said. I was being an idiot and I wasn’t dealing with my own pent up shit. I took it out on you.”

Kokichi seemed tongue tied at the moment. Kaito gently reached across the table to give him what he hoped was a comforting squeeze to his hand. Kokichi didn’t freeze or react poorly, so he figured he must have done something right.

“You didn’t scare me or anything,” Kokichi said suddenly, ignoring Kaito’s confused look. “I totally knew you weren’t gonna do anything, but still you were being a dick. So I left. I’m not so stupid as to believe you could actually get the drop on me or something.”

Kaito stared at him, clearly confused. He never implied Kokichi was scared, unless… Oh. He was lying as a way to convey the truth, Kaito realized. He wasn’t good at things like reverse psychology but he’d try if it meant understanding Kokichi a little bit better.

Kokichi huffed, resting his chin in his hand but making a point to look away from Kaito.

“Nothing you do surprises me, Momota. You’re predictable and that’s the truth.” Kokichi’s tangent was coming to an end but instead of leaving it there, he pushed himself to at least say one thing that was one hundred percent the truth, “I’m glad when Togami left you didn’t react badly. I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I’m not that much of an asshole.” Kaito tried to say in a light tone but it fell flat. “Actually about...that. Sex. If you don’t wanna do anything with me again, I totally understand--”

“I never said I wanted to cut us off.” Kokichi said, somewhat surprised. “Look, I’m still not happy with you right now but your dick is kind of magic to me so I’m not gonna give that up so easily. Plus I’m suuuuper done using sex as an act of revenge. Once was enough for me.”

“Revenge?”

“I fucked Togami hoping you’d notice.” Kokichi admitted. “You’re dense sometimes, you know that? He’s so not my type! Way too stiff and boring!”

Kaito could not keep up with Kokichi for the life of him sometimes. He sighed, muttering something about Kokichi being one of the most ridiculous people he’s ever met. Even if Kokichi was confusing and he couldn’t seem to keep the mood of the conversation consistent for more than two minutes, Kaito found that comforting. At least they were talking like normal again.

“I’m ridiculous but I’m the best lay you’ve ever had.” Kokichi teased with a smile.

Kaito rolled his eyes but couldn’t keep the smirk off his face.

“You aren’t wrong.” Not that Kaito had the most experience outside of him and the few times he’d done things with Maki. “Actually uh...about that.”

“Hmm?”

“What would you say if I asked for us to be more...exclusive?” Kaito asked hesitantly. He watched Kokichi’s face closely for any sign that he’d messed up. He couldn’t find any but that didn’t mean much when it came to Kokichi...

Kokichi let out an amused laugh.

“Wow you’re asking a lot today.” Kokichi hummed. “What are you asking me exactly? Do you just mean you only want to have sex with me and me only have sex with you oooor… Oh! Is this your way of asking for my hand in marriage?”

Kaito blushed at the thought.

“N-No! I just meant…”

“You didn’t like the pictures I sent, is that it?” Kokichi offered.

Kaito shook his head.

“No, I liked those...but when I actually saw you with Keebo I just… I dunno I got mad and that’s kinda what started the rest of my anger. I guess it was different actually seeing you with someone else and having to confront that.” Kaito admitted, blush deepening. God he really did sound like he was on the verge of asking Kokichi out… Not that he was thinking about it at all of course.

“You’re just a territorial beast is what you are.” Kokichi said, sticking his tongue out at Kaito playfully. “You mark me up waaaay more than Keebo or Miu ever did. But I guess you are the better option so I’ll say sure. We can be exclusive.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how many people you think I’m fucking but it was just Keebo and Miu and it wasn’t even that often. They like threesomes and my boytoy was out of town, I wasn’t going to turn them down.” Kokichi shrugged. “But if you don’t like that, that’s fine. I like dick better than Miu’s cumdumpster of a pussy anyways.”

Kaito choked. _Jesus_. Morbidly curious now, Kaito asked the forbidden question.

“How many people have you slept with in general?”

Kokichi quirked an eyebrow.

“More than you, I’m gathering. I guess it sounds dramatic to say like, five people, but two of those are Miu and Keebo so they’re basically one person.” Even though that isn’t at all how it worked, “Then there’s you, and Togami. Once. Ugh. And of course the person who super took my V-card.”

“Who was that?”

Kokichi hummed, looking out the window.

“Shuichi.” He answered as casually as he could.

Kaito’s jaw dropped. No way that could be the truth. No way! Kokichi had known Shuichi for slightly less than a year and they hadn’t been fooling around since January at the latest. Had Kokichi really seduced him in such little time?

“You’re joking.” Kaito said, firm in his belief.

“Nope. Shuichi really was my first.” Kokichi sighed dramatically. “My first true darling and my first heartbreak. How cruel of Shumai to tap it and leave it!”

Through Kokichi’s dramatics Kaito felt there was some truth to that ‘heartbreak’ statement. He remembered how attached Kokichi had been to Shuichi in the beginning of their friendship. Maybe it was a good thing it hadn’t worked out, though. Kaito never would have gotten to know Kokichi as well as he did if he’d started dating Shuichi.

The concept of Shuichi taking anyone’s virginity though, was a concept that never crossed Kaito’s mind.

“Wait, so how many people were you with before me, specifically?”

“Just Shuichi.”

“So, what you’re just naturally good at sucking dick?”

Kokichi had the audacity to smile innocently.

“It’s one of my many natural born talents! I’m very proud of it!” Kokichi said laughing. “I had no clue what I was doing at first but Shuichi seemed to like it so I knew I was doing something right! Maybe I’m actually a succubus. I could totally fit the role, don’t you agree?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I can see that.” Kaito said, shaking his head.

“Maybe we can test that theory later?” The offer was said as casually as any other time they’d hooked up. Kaito appreciated they were already back to this kind of normal. “You never got me anything for my birthday. Maybe I really just wanted to suck your dick for my birthday, did you think about that?”

Kaito cleared his throat awkwardly. He’d actually been prepared to have this conversation sometime later…

“Actually I was thinking...kind of half as a birthday present and half to make it up to you for being a jerk… You could uh…” He motioned vaguely with his hands but clearly didn’t get the point across. “I mean, y’know how you said all that stuff for my birthday?”

“What, that you could basically use me like your personal sex toy and stuff?”

“I mean yeah. That. But for you.” Kaito concluded.

Kokichi’s smile was absolutely evil.

“Kaito, I’m so honored that you trust me with your body like that.” He said with fake innocence. “I already have a few ideas!”

“Like what?”

“After all the times I’ve bottomed for you...I think it’s time you get a feel for it, don’t you agree?”

Kaito wasn’t going to say no. Both out of curiosity and the want to satisfy his partner, he’d agreed. They finished up their conversation and made their way back to Kokichi’s to make good on Kaito’s promise to do whatever Kokichi wanted. Kaito knew immediately it was going to be a very long night.

**~*~**

Kaito woke up with the feeling the day wasn’t going to be an easy one. He liked to think he had a pretty good sixth sense-- not as good as Rantaro’s-- but so far he’d been completely wrong. Everything was fine with Rantaro and Kiyo. The AC was working fine, the fridge was fully stocked, no lights burned out, even the popcorn he’d prepared for himself had come out completely unburnt.

The day was going suspiciously well. Eventually he decided to let his guard down and just roll with it. That’s when he got the call from Shuichi.

“Shuichi, hey man what’s up?”

“Hey Kaito, is Kokichi there?” Shuichi sounded worried. No, not just worried. He sounded like he was on the verge of panicking.

Kaito stood up, ready to head over and comfort him if Shuichi asked. Rantaro gave him a curious look from where he still sat on the couch mouthing ‘what’s wrong?’ Kaito gave him a quick shrug and pointed to the phone to convey he was still getting information.

“No, he’s not.” Kaito answered. “Did something happen?”

“We got into a fight this morning.” Shuichi explained quickly. “I really made him upset and he won’t answer any of my calls or messages. I asked Miu and Keebo and they haven’t heard from him all day…”

Kaito frowned. He of all people knew Kokichi could be petty and not reply to messages, but Shuichi’s anxiety was a bit of an achilles heel for Kokichi. If he got the impression Shuichi was genuinely upset over the silence, he would have said something.

“I haven’t heard from him.” Kaito muttered. He hated not having a way to fix things when Shuichi was anxious. “What was your fight about?”

“I-I’d rather not...say…” Shuichi sighed. “It was about you. I said...insensitive things. It was wrong of me. I’m worried I realized that too late.”

“C’mon man, I’m sure what you said wasn’t that bad…” Shuichi hardly had a mean bone in his body!

“I told him he was always going to be alone.” Shuichi admitted. “I said he deserved to be alone and that he needed to stop...messing with you.”

Kaito paused. Well, that was unexpected. Shuichi never had outbursts like that so for him to get there something must have really gone wrong. He wasn’t going to pry the answers out of Shuichi right now, but he could only imagine what else must have been said.

“I really hurt him Kaito…” Shuichi sounded increasingly distressed the more he spoke. He was definitely going to have a panic attack. “I’m a horrible person.”

Kaito fumbled to try and say the right thing.

“Look you aren’t a horrible person… Where are you, are you home?”

“No, I’m trying to find Kokichi. I have a bad feeling…”

Kaito did too, and the longer the conversation the worse that feeling got. Rantaro looked thoroughly worried from where he sat on the couch and Kaito wished he could just put Shuichi on speaker and ask him to explain everything for him. He covered the mouthpiece of his phone and mumbled.

“Kokichi and Shuichi got into a fight. Shuichi’s panicking and no one knows where Kokichi is.” He filled him in as quickly as he could before holding the phone back to his mouth so he could talk to Shuichi again. “Where have you checked, maybe I can try looking in some places too. It’s gonna get dark soon so ideally we’d like to find him before that…”

“I’ve checked all of his normal spots on campus. Kaede checked places on campus he might not usually go to… He’s not with Miu and Keebo and he’s not with you.”

Kaito hummed, deep in thought.

“I’ll start looking off campus, just keep an eye out ok?” Kaito offered and hung up with Shuichi. He moved to get a jacket and his shoes, Rantaro following behind him.

“Anything?” Rantaro asked.

“No… I don’t even know where to start looking if I’m honest.”

Rantaro thought for a moment.

“Is there any place Kokichi might go that’s significant to him? Like...from high school or childhood?” He thought aloud.

Kaito considered that for a moment. He didn’t know much about Kokichi’s years before college, but he did remember Kokichi had said something when he’d asked about his Dice tattoo. “ _We used to meet up in that shitty old factory right down the road after classes.”_

He had a feeling and decided to follow his gut on this one. He whipped out his phone and called Miu. She answered quicker than he’d been expecting.

“Whaddya want, I’m kinda busy space case!”

“Where did Kokichi go to high school?”

“Huh? We went to Imperial together, why?”

Kaito gave himself a mental pat on the back. That was a start.

“It’s shut down now, why’re you asking?”

“Just a hunch. Thanks, Miu.” He hung up and turned to Rantaro, who was typing away on his phone. “I think I know a place to start.”

“Great, Kiyo’s on his way to give us a ride… I figured that would be more efficient than running around on foot all day.” Rantaro gave him a reassuring smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m sure everything is fine and this is just a misunderstanding.”

Kaito wanted to believe it, but the way he was feeling was slowly transforming into something close to how he’d felt the day of Rantaro’s accident all those years ago. He’d known something horrible was going to happen then and he was feeling the same way now. He knew Rantaro was feeling it too.

“Yeah, you’re right…” Kaito said, more for his own sake at this point.

Kiyo arrived quickly and the ride to Imperial High School began. It was further away than Kaito expected...but he didn’t want to write it off just yet. Like Kokichi had said there was a large factory down the road from the school. Kiyo parked somewhere in the middle, with him and Rantaro prepared to check the school while Kaito went to search the factory.

When Kaito set foot in the factory he could feel something was very, very wrong. He fought that feeling of dread in his stomach and pushed forward. It was dim, but he could see well enough to know the place hadn’t been touched in years. Everything looked about ready to fall apart, so he was careful where he stepped.

“Kokichi!” He called out, hoping he’d hear something, anything, to indicate his friend was there. “Hey, if you can hear me I need you to answer me! We’re real worried about you!”

He was met with silence.

“Man, whatever happened between you and Shuichi can get fixed, ok?” He kept talking just to fill the silence as he searched the factory. “Just please don’t do anything stupid…”

The first level of the factory showed no signs that anyone had been there. Kaito frowned, preparing to find the stairs to go down a level when he noticed a hole in the floor. It was half covered by a tarp, but it seemed to have been messed with recently. He approached it cautiously and lifted the tarp fully, peering down the hole.

He found Kokichi a level below him, laying face down on the ground with a small pool of blood around his head. His heart stopped for just a moment.

“Shit!” He scanned the area quickly, trying to find stairs that would lead him to the lower levels of the building. He bolted, nearly tripping himself, when he found them.

When he reached the lower level, he quickly ran to Kokichi’s side but froze when he got to him. What was he supposed to do? Should he shake him? Poke him? He jumped at the noise of his phone going off, immediately followed by Kokichi groaning in pain from where he lay.

_Thank god he’s alive_. Kaito let out a sigh of relief but he knew Kokichi wasn’t exactly in the clear yet. He was bleeding, he needed help. Kaito quickly got his phone, noticing it was Rantaro messaging him. He quickly sent him that he’d found Kokichi and he needed to go to hospital, fast.

Rantaro told him he and Kiyo were on their way. Kaito’s attention immediately fell on Kokichi, kneeling beside him and lightly putting a hand on the man’s back. Kokichi jolted at the touch.

“Shit, sorry--!” Kaito jerked his hand away quickly.

Kokichi mumbled something unintelligible but lifted his head to look at Kaito. There was blood stained down his face. His hair seemed soaked with it too, but it was hard to tell due to how dimly lit the place was. Kaito hated the confused look on Kokichi’s face. It reminded him of the first time he saw Rantaro after his accident.

“Wh…” Kokichi blinked slowly, seemingly unaware he’d barely been able to begin a word much less finish it. After a moment he gave a small, forced smile. “Hah, bet ya thought I was dead or something, right?”

“Don’t joke about that.” Kaito said a bit harsher than he meant to. “Can you move?”

“Uh...yeah...totally, doing that...right now.” Kokichi mumbled, laying his head back down and squeezing his eyes shut as though keeping them open was a hassle. “‘M moving a lot.”

“Shit, um…” Kaito gently placed his hands on Kokichi, “I’m gonna move you ok? Can you trust me?”

Kokichi gave a weak thumbs up. At this point, Kaito was taking any communication he could get with him. He carefully moved Kokichi to where he was sitting up, but it didn’t do much good. Kokichi immediately fell against him, using Kaito as his support to stay upright. He was probably staining Kaito’s clothes with blood but neither of them noticed or cared.

Kaito heard footsteps approaching quickly. It had to be Rantaro and Kiyo, they’d know what to do.

“Hey Kokichi, we’re gonna get you up and to a hospital ok?” Kaito said, trying to keep his voice soft for the other man. He didn’t get a reply. He tried not to think about it too hard.

Rantaro finally found the two, freezing the moment he saw Kokichi.

“Holy shit.” He breathed, approaching carefully. “Kaito we need to get him out of here.”

“I know that but he can’t really move right now, I don’t think.” Kaito explained, “I’m scared I’m gonna hurt him if I pick him up.”

“We don’t have many options. We’ve gotta go, Kiyo is waiting outside with the car.”

Kaito nodded and murmured a small apology to Kokichi as he hoisted the man up. He was light in Kaito’s arms, it was hardly a hassle to get him out of the building and into the car. Kaito ignored the mildly alarmed look he got from Kiyo and focused on making sure Kokichi was comfortably sat in the back seat. He got in after him to keep an eye on him.

Kokichi hadn’t said a word since Kaito first moved him, but he was still breathing. Kaito tried to tell himself things would be ok but he didn’t know that for sure. He wasn’t a doctor, neither were Kiyo or Rantaro. No one there could tell him for certain things were going to be fine.

“What happened?” Kiyo asked carefully as he started on the way to the hospital. “If you know anything, that is.”

“I think he fell and hit his head.” Kaito said, “There was a hole, it was kinda covered when I got there but if it was fully covered earlier it would’ve been hard to notice…”

“Is his phone on him?” Rantaro asked, turning around from the front seat to look at Kaito. “We should call whoever his emergency contact is.”

Kaito checked in Kokichi’s pockets and pulled out his now cracked phone. He opened it without much hassle and checked to see if he had anyone listed as such. He found Miu and Keebo were listed under an “emergency” category in Kokichi’s contacts. He decided to call Keebo, feeling he would do better in a situation like this.

“Kokichi?” Keebo’s voice sounded relieved. Kaito hated to be the one to deliver bad news…

He couldn’t get the words out of his mouth, so he handed the phone to Rantaro. Rantaro took the phone without a word, probably having anticipated this.

“Hello? I’m calling to inform you that Kokichi Ouma has been in an accident and is currently on his way to the hospital.” Rantaro said, trying to keep it as professional as possible.

“What?” Keebo’s voice was suddenly very alarmed. “Rantaro is that you? What happened?”

“Keebo? Yeah, it’s me. Sorry I didn’t… Never mind, can you meet us at the hospital closest to Imperial high school?”

“Yes, I can do that… Is Kokichi ok? What happened?”

“We think he fell and hit his head pretty bad.” Rantaro explained. “I’m not sure how responsive he was before I got to him…”

“Not very.” Kaito provided. “He hasn’t spoken since I first found him.”

“He hasn’t spoken in a while.” Rantaro corrected. “There’s...a lot of blood.”

Not much else was said between Rantaro and Keebo before they hung up. Rantaro sighed, leaning back in his seat. Kaito had a ton of questions he chose not to ask, simply because Rantaro probably had as few answers as he himself did.

“Miu and Keebo said they’d meet us there…”

“Good.” Kiyo said, calmly. “It will do him some good to have friends close by when he’s well again.”

They pulled into the hospital and wasted no time getting Kokichi inside. He was promptly taken by a nurse, Mikan, Kaito thought her name tag said. She said she’d alert the three of them when she had an update on Kokichi’s condition and so began the wait.

Kaito, Rantaro, and Kiyo sat as patiently as they could at one of the food establishments the hospital had. None of them got anything to eat, but Kaito did get a coffee for himself. He was feeling drained due to the anxiety of the whole situation but he refused to give in. He was going to be right there when Kokichi was allowed visitors.

“Someone needs to tell Shuichi.” Rantaro said, breaking the somewhat comfortable silence that had been going on. “It’s dark out and enough time has passed that he’s probably wondering why we haven’t updated him.”

“Shit, you’re right…” Kaito sighed, taking his phone out. He was hovering over the call button for Shuichi. He didn’t know what to say, if he was honest.

“It would be better he learn from you than Miu or Keebo.” Kiyo pointed out.

Kaito knew he was right. He pressed call and got the conversation out of the way. Shuichi was a bit of a mess, but he’d expected that much. He’d asked if he should come to the hospital but Kaito figured there were enough people gathering there that it wouldn’t be necessary. He instead offered to call Shuichi when they had an update, but told his friend to get some rest for the time being. Shuichi seemed a bit dejected but hadn’t argued.

No sooner had he handled Shuichi when Miu and Keebo arrived. Miu waltzed over, clearly pissed off at one or all of them.

“What the fuck happened?!” She demanded, hands on her hips.

“Miu, calm down--” Rantaro tried but he was quickly cut off.

“I’m not calming down for shit, jackass! Now tell me everything you know or I swear to Keebo’s dick I’m gonna strangle all three of you!”

“We already told everything we know to Keebo.” Rantaro said calmly. “We found Kokichi, we think he hit his head, he’s getting help now.”

Miu didn’t seem pleased but she didn’t yell at them anymore. She roughly pulled out a seat at the table they were at and sat down.

“That dumbass.” She fumed, only seeming to calm down the slightest when Keebo sat next to her and held her hand. “Of course he’d be the one to go and fuck himself up like this. I’m gonna cut his dick off when I see him. That’ll show him!”

Show him what, Kaito had no clue.

“Thank you for calling us as soon as you could.” Keebo spoke up. “We appreciate the urgency.”

“No problem.” Rantaro said.

“Can I… Can I ask why you were Kokichi’s emergency contacts?” Kaito asked, immediately regretting it once it came out of his mouth. “Sorry, I just want to make sure his family knows.”

Miu stared at him like he was an idiot.

“We _are_ his family.” She said, clearly insulted. “We’re orphans dumbshit. The three of us are about as close to family as we’re gonna get! Besides even if he did have a shitty family, we’re friends so we’d still be his emergency contacts.”

“It’s not unusual.” Kiyo tried, in hopes of calming her down. “Angie is my emergency contact, not my parents. I’m sure plenty people have similar situations.”

“See, Korkboard over here gets it!” Miu gave him a thumbs up. “Family shit is overrated, when you have an amazing friend like me I deserve to be at the top of the list! Though it’d be nice if he didn’t go and hit his head or whatever shit. ...How bad was it?”

Rantaro and Kaito exchanged a look.

“...There was a lot of blood but I’m sure it looked worse than it was.” Rantaro tried. Miu didn’t seem satisfied. “We’ll know soon.”

“That aint soon enough.” She complained.

Silence fell over the group once more as they waited. Eventually they were approached by the nurse from earlier. Mikan seemed a bit surprised that the group had grown so she fumbled through he explanation but managed to convey Kokichi’s condition in the end.

He had a concussion and a sprained wrist, but otherwise he would be fine. The blood had just been an unfortunate side effect to how hard he’d hit his head. She informed them he could start seeing visitors as well, but only one at a time. Miu and Keebo seemed to be priority in that department as they were his emergency contacts and closest thing to family.

Miu basically threatened Mikan into letting Keebo come visit Kokichi with her. Keebo promised they wouldn’t be a stress to him before he trailed off after Miu.

The whole time they were with him, Kaito went over the days events in his head. Things had been a mess but at least they were looking up now. Finding Kokichi with blood running down his face had scared him deeply, but he tried to remind himself things would be fine. He’d heal. He’d be released in no time, hopefully.

After Miu and Keebo returned, he went to see Kokichi for himself.

Kokichi’s eyes were closed when he walked in but he could tell the man wasn’t asleep. He took a seat next to his hospital bed and scratched awkwardly at the back of his neck, not sure what to say. _Glad you aren’t dead_?

“I know I’m gorgeous and all, but maybe you could say hello instead of stare at me all day.” Kokichi quietly said, eyes now open and glued to Kaito.

“Sorry…” He sighed. “I’m glad you’re ok.”

“My head hurts like a mother fucker.” Kokichi muttered. “And my special hand is sprained so no quickies for me. But yeah, I guess other than that I’m fine.”

Kaito just nodded, not sure how to react. Kokichi sighed and sat up, just a little.

“I’m sorry.” He said, catching Kaito off guard. “Miu and Keebo told me you seemed pretty spooked. So I’m sorry you were the one who found me like that.”

“You’re apologizing for being hurt?” Kaito questioned.

“Don’t get used to it. It’s the concussion speaking. But while I feel like being nice, yes I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to get hurt. Obviously.” Kokichi sighed, looking away. “You don’t have to stick around me like I’m some kind of obligation. You got me to the hospital so you can leave now.”

Kaito furrowed his brows in confusion.

“What? Why would I leave?”

“Don’t make me say it.”

He was really confusing Kaito now.

“I really don’t follow, Kokichi.”

“I don’t deserve you.” Kokichi said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I don’t deserve any of you. Miu, Keebo, _Shuichi_ …”

Ah, so that’s what this was about. Kaito remembered what Shuichi had told him about their argument earlier. It made sense Kokichi would still be hung up over it but Kaito wasn’t used to seeing him so vulnerable like this. It seemed as though he truly believed Shuichi was right to say what he had. Maybe it was the concussion, but Kokichi couldn’t hide how upset he was. Not this time.

“Just go, Kaito.”

“No.” Kaito answered immediately.

Kokichi looked at him in surprise.

“I’m not going anywhere. Look, I don’t know...exactly what happened between you and Shuichi. I know a little, enough that I knew you were trying to go off the grid, but whatever he said forget about it.”

“...You act like that’s so easy.”

“How hard did you hit your head?” Kaito asked, mentally smacking himself when the words slipped out. “Listen up, ok? No one gets to speak for how I feel about you. Even if you don’t believe this for anyone else, know that I do care about you and when I found you I almost had a damn heart attack. I wouldn’t react like that if I didn’t care a hell of a lot about you, got it?”

Kokichi stared at him for a moment, seemingly unsure how to process the information Kaito had dumped on him.

“You…” He started, fumbling to find the right words. “You don’t get to say that kind of stuff to me right now. Jeez, let me be sad and concussed in peace… Hah, you sounded so sappy Kaito… That’s gotta be like, so embarrassing…”

Nothing Kokichi said had a bite. He sounded incredibly sad and vulnerable, like he could crumble to pieces at any moment. Kaito stayed quiet, letting Kokichi ramble as he saw fit but he held his friends hand gently, as if to say “I’m here” without overloading him with any more sappy words or confessions.

He stayed with Kokichi until the man fell asleep.

**~*~**

Things returned to normal quicker than Kaito had been expecting. Kokichi and Shuichi seemed to work out their fight privately and while things weren’t perfect, they were better than anyone could have hoped. Kokichi acted like he was completely over their fight, mostly for Shuichi’s sake, but Kaito knew if he could see through the act then Shuichi definitely could.

One small oddity was Kokichi’s increased time at Kaito’s apartment. He’d come over after work or class just to chat and hang out. That rarely, if ever, happened before. Normally them hanging out led to sex but since Kokichi’s accident, neither had initiated anything past a quick kiss in greeting or saying goodbye. It was...domestic. Vanilla. Everything Kokichi wasn’t.

Kaito didn’t want to complain but it was a change he couldn’t help but notice. He didn’t want to ask about it and ruin the nice vibe that had settled over everyone but he saw an opportunity to pry for some answers and took it. Kokichi had shown up that morning with an overnight bag, clearly he had some plans in mind for later. Rantaro and Kiyo just so happened to be going out on a date that night so the two would have alone time…

Kaito was beginning to wonder how much Rantaro and Kokichi plotted with each other.

He’d waited for his roommates to leave and settled on watching a movie with Kokichi for a while before he brought the topic up. Kokichi was complaining about how stupid and boring the movie was so Kaito didn’t feel bad muting the television after roughly twenty minutes.

“Hey, I was watching that!” Kokichi complained, throwing a piece of popcorn at Kaito’s head.

Kaito deflected the popcorn attack, softly laughing as he did. He tried to school his features and act professional as he turned to Kokichi.

“You didn’t seem to be enjoying it so I thought we could...talk.”

Kokichi smirked.

“We could do a lot more than talk, Kaito.” He said, sitting up. “Though to be honest, that’s not why I wanted to spend the night.”

“It isn’t?” Kaito asked, somewhat surprised. He’d assumed where things would be leading but this turn of events wasn’t disappointing to him. He...liked spending time with Kokichi. It was nice, even when sex wasn’t involved.

“No.” Kokichi shifted, looking away from Kaito. “I just wanted to be here with you. But if you wanted to, I’m not exactly opposed to it.”

“I don’t mind if we don’t do anything. If you aren’t into it right now that’s fine with me.” Kaito said. “Our relationship doesn’t have to be all sex. I mean, obviously it isn’t--”

Kokichi quickly looked at him, eyes wide.

“It isn’t?”

“Of course it isn’t.” Kaito frowned. “We’re friends. I thought the feeling was mutual.”

Quickly, Kokichi hid his shock and laughed.

“Well, duh. I don’t spend time with just any loser.” He rolled his eyes but something still felt a little off.

Kaito cleared his throat, trying to keep himself on topic.

“Right. Anyways, I was...wondering why you don’t seem to spend much time at home anymore. I-I mean, I don’t mind you being here so much! None of us mind it, I was just curious as to why…”

Kokichi hummed, thinking about his answer carefully. He must’ve been struggling with his words for a little too long because Kaito spoke up again.

“You can be honest with me.” He offered.

“I know.” Kokichi mumbled. “I know I can be honest with you and sometimes, that’s what makes things hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“...I don’t know how else to say this, so I’ll just say it. I’m not entirely over what Shuichi said to me. He’s my first real friend outside of Miu and Keebo and I actually trusted him with a few things. Then he turned around and said what he said, all because he found out exactly what I was up to with you.” Kokichi explained. “He’s way more protective over you than I thought. I wonder if he was as mean to Kiyo when he found out that him and Rantaro were together… Probably not.”

“Kiyo is...weird. He’s got his own issues though and Rantaro helps him with that… So Kiyo helps when Rantaro needs it.” Kaito said. “They’re more...Yknow.”

“They obviously benefit by being together.” Kokichi provided. “And to Shuichi we don’t. He thinks we’re just going to hurt each other. Of course he won’t say that out loud, so I had to do some detective work and deduce that on my own, or whatever.”

Kaito let Kokichi’s words sink in a bit. Maybe in the beginning, Shuichi had been right. The two were constantly at each other’s throats trying to find new ways to insult or annoy each other. The sex had just been a way to tolerate each other and blow off some steam. But now…? Were things really like that?

They weren’t. They weren’t even close to how they’d begun.

“Shuichi’s smart but even he makes mistakes when he doesn’t have the whole picture.” Kaito said confidently. Kokichi didn’t look nearly as confident in his words.

“And what’s the whole picture, Kaito?”

“We care about each other.” Kaito said bluntly. “Maybe it isn’t like Kiyo and Rantaro or maybe it isn’t as obvious as the way Kaede and Shuichi care about each other, but it’s there and that’s a fact. We just...handle our shit differently.”

Kokichi sighed.

“Shuichi is right about one thing he said though. Ok, well, maybe more than one thing he said but my point is still gonna be great.” He began, “We can hurt each other way too easily.”

“What do you mean by that?”

At first, all he got was a small, bitter laugh in response. Kokichi obviously had a very clear picture in his mind of what Shuichi meant but Kaito wasn’t following. He couldn’t always follow Kokichi’s train of thought and sometimes he didn’t want to, but this time? He just wanted to understand Kokichi’s hesitance and point of view.

“What I mean is that we’re total opposites. You like people, you have friends and family who love you and you love all those people back. You trust people with things I could never even think of opening up about. Your anger issues? You explained it in full and I didn’t even have to ask for you to do that. You just trusted me with that information. I’m not like that. Shuichi knows it, I know it, and I know you know it too.” Kokichi ranted, getting visibly frustrated.

Kaito reached over and held Kokichi’s hand, trying to comfort his friend. Kokichi gripped his hand, letting out an annoyed sigh before trying to continue.

“I’m not like you. Or Shuichi, for that matter. I hate trusting other people. The second I do they can use it against me and remind me I’m not supposed to be the kind of person who gets a nice family or _friends_ . I’m _alone_ and I always will be.” Kokichi finished bitterly, refusing to look at Kaito. “The second I trust someone and open up, I lose.”

Kaito couldn’t understand that life view. No matter how many times he’s been hurt, he always picks himself up and moves on somehow, someway. Kokichi’s way of life was definitely different but that didn’t mean he had to hold those views forever.

“You trust me, though.” Kaito said. “You’re saying this to me right now, that’s gotta mean something.”

“Explaining my philosophy to you isn’t the same as trusting you with my secrets.”

“Ok, then you’ve done that before too.”

Kokichi slowly looked over to him, questioning him with his eyes.

“Your scars and tattoos. You showed those to me.”

“Everyone I’ve fucked has seen those.”

“You explained your Dice tattoo to me, though. Obviously you didn’t do that with everyone else since I was the one who found you when… when you fell. If Shuichi knew the story behind it he would’ve been able to think of your old school as a possibility, right? So you did trust me with a secret.” Kaito gave a gentle smile and continued, “I’m not a total idiot. I know the things you like and dislike even if it’s more on a physical level. You know how to make me mad without lifting a finger. That could spell disaster but we choose not to do that to each other and Shuichi’s just gonna have to realize that.”

Kokichi’s mind was going a mile a minute processing what Kaito was saying. Did he realize just how damn sappy he sounded saying stuff like that? Kokichi wanted to tease him, lighten the mood and end this serious conversation but he couldn’t find the words. Instead he just grabbed Kaito’s hand tighter, not realizing the way he was trembling.

“I’m not giving you up so easily.” Kaito said and Kokichi swore he got the line straight out of some shitty romcom. There was no other option.

“Do you realize what a sappy moron you sound like? Jesus, Kaito, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that was your way of like, _proposing_ to me or something.” Kokichi let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “You make me feel like an idiot for worrying in the first place.”

Kaito wasn’t expecting the very soft kiss he received just a moment later. He relaxed easily, used to the feeling of Kokichi being close by now, and closed his eyes. He felt at ease with things and he hoped Kokichi did too. They stayed that way for a few minutes, kissing and even touching very softly, but eventually they parted.

Kaito didn’t realize he was smiling at Kokichi as if he were the most precious thing in the world.

**~*~**

Classes started up again and things felt right in the world. Kokichi’s wrist had healed up nicely and the last remaining bits of fallout from his and Shuichi’s fight seemed to get patched up. Everyone felt like normal college kids again; fumbling through their days with work and school, coming home tired but at least they all had each other.

Things had picked up once more with Kaito and Kokichi, this time leading to more openness after sex than before. Kokichi finally told Kaito about his other tattoo, which Kaito knew was a big step in Kokichi trusting him with other details. Apparently Miu, Keebo, and Kokichi had all gotten matching tattoos when they’d left their old orphanage. It was simple enough, but it was a truth Kokichi wouldn’t tell just anyone.

“I’d say that’s a lie but Miu told me she already spilled the tea on me being an orphan so there’s no point in making any ridiculous stories anymore.”

Kaito appreciated the next step in them fully trusting each other. He didn’t feel the need to hide nearly as many aspects of his past or personality that Kokichi did, but for every step Kokichi took in trusting him, Kaito tried to think of something new to show he was right with him, willing to be open about himself as well.

He knew he didn’t need to, Kokichi could read him well enough, but he seemed to appreciate when Kaito told him something new anyways. Maybe it made him feel like there was less pressure on himself? Kaito didn’t quite know.

Sometimes Kaito wondered exactly what all the new steps they took towards trusting and opening up to each other meant in the long run. Was it really just so they could get along and stay fuck buddies? Was it just going to strengthen their friendship and nothing more? Once or twice Kaito had thought about the possibility of things going further.

The possibility didn’t scare him, necessarily, but he had no idea what dating someone like Kokichi would entail. He’d ask Shuichi or Rantaro for help but this wasn’t really something they could give him a straight answer on. Should he or shouldn’t he? His friends couldn’t answer that for him no matter how much he trusted their opinions.

Kaito decided to do what he did best: roll with it. The moment felt right-- it was just after a rather tame night, Kokichi was playing a game on his phone while Kaito was deep in thought. He glanced over at Kokichi every now and then, not sure what to ask or how to ask it. Should he ask him on a date? What if Kokichi said no. Maybe that was too forward? Was he even ready to seriously consider Kokichi as a potential partner?

He wondered if long ago when Kokichi’s “no intimacy” rule had been in place it had been to avoid complicated feelings like this from forming. He wondered if Kokichi ever felt this conflicted on the inside.

“If you’ve got something to ask, just ask.” Kokichi said, breaking the silence. “You keep staring at me and I know you aren’t in the mood for another round. What is it?”

“I was just thinking--”

“Obviously,”

“Well, yeah,” Kaito hesitated. Kokichi put his phone down and gave him a look like he wanted Kaito to just spit it out but he stayed patient, thankfully. “I was thinking. That it’s nice we meet up and do stuff like this so much.”

Kokichi nodded in agreement.

“There’s a ‘but’ though, isn’t there?” He asked, resting his head in his hands.

“Kinda?” Kaito paused. “Would you go out with me?”

He immediately regretted the way he’d phrased that. Kokichi’s eyes went wide and the man said nothing. Kaito sat up quickly, fumbling over a few words to try to fix what he’d said. He hadn’t meant it like that-- or had he? He could wait for Kokichi to give him an honest answer but there was that fear of him saying no… There was a near fear of him saying yes.

“I-I meant-- I didn’t-- wow, shit I fucked that up.” Kaito sighed heavily, covering his face with his hands. “Holy shit that’s not what I meant.”

“What _did_ you mean?”

“I meant like, go out to dinner and a movie or something.” That really didn’t sound any less like the implication of dating, so he quickly added, “As friends.”

“As friends.” Kokichi repeated. “Yeah. We could do stuff like that.”

Kaito visibly relaxed, flopping back down onto the bed. Kokichi snickered, catching his attention.

“Were you that nervous about accidentally asking me to date you?” He teased with a playful look in his eyes. “What would you have done if I planned on saying yes? I would be heartbroken to hear you backtrack like you did!”

“Ha ha very funny.”

“At least if we ever did go out, we’d already know how to fuck each other.” Kokichi mentioned offhandedly.

Kaito hoped he wasn’t blushing as much as he thought he was.

“Y-Yeah that would be good. But could you even imagine us dating?” He tried to ask the question like a joke but his heart froze when he saw Kokichi actually thinking about it. Oh god.

“Honestly if we ever dated it’d just give me more opportunities to mess with you. Oh that might be fun… Kaito, go out with me!”

“I’m pretty sure you just scared me off from ever considering that again.” It was such an obvious lie.

Kokichi laughed, pushing himself up enough to swing a leg over Kaito’s waist and look down on him. He placed his hands in Kaito’s hair, playing with it for a moment before leaning down to hover over Kaito.

“I’m pretty sure I know how to convince you to at least consider it.” He said in a whisper, “I don’t think anyone knows how to make you feel as good as I do.”

Kaito couldn’t resist pulling Kokichi down for a kiss. He was pretty spent, but that didn’t matter. He could still make out and he could definitely use his mouth or hands if he needed to. Kokichi giggled into the kiss, grinding against Kaito just a bit so he’d realize how hard he’d gotten already.

“You are a freak of nature.” Kaito mumbled, reaching between them to gently grasp Kokichi’s cock in his hand. “I don’t know how you’re capable of going on this long.”

Kokichi let out a soft gasp, eyes fluttering shut.

“You aren’t exactly complaining though, are you?” He bucked into Kaito’s hand, biting down on his bottom lip. “I want your mouth.”

“On your back.”

They easily rearranged themselves. Kokichi got comfortable in Kaito’s bed, snuggling into the covers a bit as Kaito situated himself between Kokichi’s thighs. They could talk about the specifics of the not-date later…

**~*~**

It took a while for them to find plans that worked for both of them. Kokichi casually mentioned a movie date might not be best for him and when he’d been questioned he dropped the information that he worked at the nearby theater.

“I don’t want to go on a date to the same place I work, that’s so boring.”

Kaito didn’t disagree. That would be like Kokichi taking him out on a romantic date to Best Buy. Not exactly ideal. They’d bounced a few ideas back and forth for a while but nothing seemed quite right until Rantaro casually mentioned to Kaito that a fair was going on over the weekend.

“It’s big enough that Kokichi won’t get bored but contained enough that you don’t have to worry about it getting out of hand.” Rantaro had said.

It was perfect for a date. Well, not-date-but-also-kind-of-a-date…-date. It was a working title.

Kaito and Kokichi ultimately settled on the fair with everyone. Seeing as it was closer to Kaito’s, Kokichi offered to show up at around 7 in the evening so they could walk together. Kaito had agreed and that led him to now. The day of the fair date, waiting for Kokichi with Rantaro and Kiyo. Kaito was pretty sure he was freaking out. No, he _definitely_ was freaking out.

“What if something goes wrong? Like in those Final Destination movies.” He was mumbling, mostly to himself but unfortunately his roommates were subjected to every new idea that popped into his mind.

“I told you we shouldn’t have watched those movies with him.” Rantaro said, sighing from where he was settled on the couch. He was leaning on Kiyo, watching as Kaito paced back and forth nervously rambling all the while.

“I didn’t believe you when he said he was...uniquely susceptible to horror.” Kiyo commented dryly. “I learned my lesson.”

Kaito whined.

“What if I make a fool of myself?”

“Alright.” Rantaro pushed himself up from the couch, “That’s my cue. Kaito, you’re really over thinking this, don’t you think?”

Kaito frowned. He knew he was but Rantaro saying it made him immediately put him his defenses. Just because he was right doesn’t mean he should say it…

“So? I’m just thinking about the possibilities.”

“You’re acting like a high schooler. Actually, worse than that. You weren’t this bad when you and Maki were dating so what’s different now? Besides this is a ‘not-date’ right? Don’t worry about it so much.” Rantaro had an unbelievably smug look on his face as he spoke. Kaito had half a mind to do something about it.

“This isn’t Maki, that’s the thing.” Kaito admitted. “I know her really well. We were pretty close in high school and she was...yknow, blunt. If I was being an idiot she’d tell me and we’d do something else.”

“You act as though Kokichi won’t do the same thing.” Kiyo chimed in.

“He’s different.” Kaito claimed. “Maki and I had a lot of history going into our relationship. Kokichi and I are...friends. Trying to get closer. But we piss each other off, so what if that happens here?”

Rantaro and Kiyo exchanged a look. Kaito was dense sometimes, but this was a whole new level.

“If Kokichi starts getting mad you’ll know. If you start getting mad, he’ll know. Kiyo and I will be there, so will Shuichi and Kaede. I think that’s enough safety nets, don’t you?”

Kaito couldn’t reply before a knock at the door disrupted their conversation. A glance at the clock told him it was probably Kokichi. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and opened the door, trying to put on a smile that wasn’t completely forced.

Kokichi was dressed casually enough, but of course he couldn’t just be completely normal and leave his tacky scarf behind. Kaito didn’t know what he was expecting, though he guessed Kokichi’s scarf was like him with galaxy print anything. Good luck prying it away from him…

“You look good.” Kaito said dumbly, “Not that you don’t normally.”

Kokichi smirked.

“Aww cute, you’re flustered.” He teased, “Is the cavalry ready for date night?”

After everyone got their things, they met up with Shuichi and Kaede and officially headed out for the night. Kaito gave it maybe an hour before everyone split up and did their own thing. That gave them time to catch up quickly and have some fun as a group before they most likely all got lost in the commotion of the fair.

It took exactly twenty five minutes for Kokichi to drag Kaito away from the group first. Kaito’s money had been on Kaede and Shuichi but he’d underestimated how much Kokichi wanted alone time with him.

“Well that was a graceless exit.” Kaito said as the distance between them and the group grew further.

“I can’t have fun with you in front of all of them.” Kokichi whined. “Besides we all see each other all the time, you can catch up with them later!”

Kaito sighed and nodded. Kokichi wasn’t wrong.

“Well now that it’s just us, what did you have planned?”

“You act like I have an itinerary for us or something. I’m starving and there’s like, tons of food stands. Buy me something.” Kokichi gave him his best puppy dog eyes but Kaito was unphased.

“You have a job, buy your own food.”

“I’m so insulted! And here I thought this was a date!” He paused, face scrunching up in thought. “A not-date. A friend-date? Friend-date works. Damn, that would make us have to pay for our own stuff then… You win this time, Kaito.”

Kaito rolled his eyes, allowing himself to be dragged around to a few stands. They chatted about the fair attractions as they ate. Kokichi dared Kaito to try his hand at some of the fair games but he refused. Most of them were rigged anyways, but saying that only made Kokichi want to try and cheat at them.

It was relaxing though, more so than Kaito had expected. They decided to try some of the rides before it got too late and ended up on the ferris wheel.

“It sucks that you aren’t afraid of heights.” Kokichi mentioned as they got situated. It was just the two of them in the compartment, thankfully.

“Why’s that?”

“Because then you’d be clinging to me going ‘oh Kokichi save me!!’ and all that.”

“That sounds...nothing like me.” Kaito raised an eyebrow. “Sounds more like you.”

Kokichi gave him an insulted look.

“I am amazing with heights so haha no scared cuddling for you!” Kokichi said, “I had to escape from an airplane by using its only parachute once so I’m super used to heights.”

“Let me guess--”

“That’s a lie!”

“That’s what I thought.”

They fell into a comfortable silence as the ride began. Kokichi leaned against Kaito, resting his head on his shoulder and sighed, content. Kaito relaxed, tipping his head back to watch the stars in the sky. No one they knew could see them like this, no one would ask questions, and no one had to know about this soft moment but them. It was nice.

“We should get ice cream after this.” Kokichi mumbled, eyes closed and completely relaxed against Kaito.

“We just ate.”

“So? We’re on a goddamn ferris wheel, we’re doing what the movies do. In order to complete that we are legally obligated to go get ice cream after this.” Kokichi said, “Also I saw a stand that had grape flavor. I want it.”

“Grape? Ew.”

“It’s delicious, you’re just jealous you didn’t think to make it first.”

“I can assure you it definitely isn’t that.” Kaito said, “But fine we can get some damn ice cream. ...I’ll even pay for it.”

Kokichi smiled, leaning up and kissing Kaito on the cheek.

“Aww how sweet! If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were courting me!”

Kaito rolled his eyes, shrugging Kokichi off of him.

“Ride’s almost over, dumbass. Let’s go get that grape ice cream you want so much.”

Once off the ride, Kokichi grabbed Kaito’s hand and led the way. Kaito pretended that the hand holding didn’t make his heart skip a beat. He hated that they broke it off once they got to the stand, but the ice cream was a decent trade off. He got Kokichi his grape flavor and got himself vanilla fudge with peanuts-- way more valid than grape.

“Aww you got peanuts on yours.” Kokichi said, pouting. “Now I can’t make out with you later.”

“Why’s that?” Kaito asked.

“I’m super allergic to peanuts.”

“...Shit really? I’m s--”

“Kidding! I’m not allergic. It’s fine.”

Kaito was half tempted to dump his ice cream on Kokichi’s head. But...the fudge was too good to give up. He couldn’t waste perfectly good ice cream that way. The two wandered off and found a place to sit and eat their ice cream in peace. Kaito finished his first and decided to check on Kokichi’s progress. He couldn’t help but laugh when he saw him.

“What?”

“You have ice cream all over your face.” Kaito said, shaking his head. “You look ridiculous.”

“You’re being mean to meee!” Kokichi whined through fake tears. “How could you Kaito? I trusted youuu!”

Kaito simply rolled his eyes and handed Kokichi a napkin. Unfortunately for him, Kokichi decided it would be a good time to start messing around. Kokichi cleaned his face only to immediately get ice cream on the side of it again, eyeing Kaito as he did.

“Uh oh. I missed.” He said, eyes locked with Kaito. “How unfortunate.”

“You realize you’re only making a mess of yourself right?” Kaito murmured, leaning forward anyways to swipe at the ice cream with his thumb. Kokichi caught his hand and licked at Kaito’s thumb, making the taller man freeze. “We’re in public.”

“So?” Kokichi smirked. “Not my fault if you pop a boner.”

“Yes it is!” Kaito hissed, pulling his hand back and blushing furiously.

Kokichi hummed, leaning into Kaito’s personal space. Kaito looked over to him, about to ask what he wanted but he was cut off by Kokichi gently kissing him. Kaito’s eyes fluttered shut and he leaned in closer to deepen the kiss. He’d nearly forgotten the world around them when a bright flash ruined the moment.

He broke the kiss, eyes wide. A girl with bright red hair and a camera stood in front of them.

“Ah, sorry I guess I should have asked before taking a picture.” She said with a nervous smile. Kaito vaguely recognized her from one of his classes...Mahiru, was it? “You two just looked perfect I couldn’t help myself.”

“O-Oh it’s fine. Mahiru, right?”

“Yep, that’s me!” She confirmed. “I was taking some photos of the fair for my portfolio-- I hope you don’t mind that I got a picture of you two…”

“Don’t apologize, I’m just glad you uh...found is photogenic?” Kaito said awkwardly.

“I’m always ready for a photo shoot, unlike Kaito here.” Kokichi said with a smirk. “Oh maybe your friend here can help me get started on my modeling career!”

Mahiru tilted her head to the side curiously.

“You want to be a model? You have the look for it, actually…”

“Please don’t encourage his delusions.” Kaito mumbled.

They spoke to Mahiru for a few more minutes before she claimed she had to go get back to her friends. She gave the two a quick goodbye before running off. Kaito figured he should probably talk to her more-- she seemed pretty nice. Eventually, Kaito and Kokichi ran into Rantaro and Kiyo again. Apparently Shuichi and Kaede left the fair early to tend to some “urgent business” as Rantaro had put it.

Things were winding down so the group relaxed, watching people hurry by every now and then. Kokichi worked up conversation with Rantaro and Kiyo while Kaito stayed quiet and tried to think about things.

This...had gone well. He felt ridiculous for being so worked up over it earlier. He could handle Kokichi, even if he was a brat sometimes. Really, what had he been worried about? He must’ve been so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn’t realize he was being spoken to. Kokichi nudged him and gave him an expectant look.

“Huh?”

“Jeez are you even paying attention, space cadet?” Kokichi complained. “What’s got you all zoned out? Are...are you tired of spending time with me?! Are you _bored_?!”

And there were the fake tears.

“Oh please.” Kaito wasn’t even phased by the fake tears. “You’re crazy if you think time with you could ever be considered boring.”

Kokichi’s fake tears ceased immediately. He stared at Kaito, expression unreadable for a moment. For a second Kaito was scared he’d said the wrong thing, but quickly vanished that thought. It was crazy to think Kokichi had wanted to be called boring.

“We were saying it’s about time to head back home.” Rantaro spoke up. “Did you want to walk back together or…?”

“We can head back together.” Kaito said.

Kokichi quietly nodded in agreement.

The walk back was uneventful and mostly quiet. It wasn’t bad though, everyone was just getting tired from the long day. Kokichi decided to spend the night at Kaito’s instead of get a ride back to his own place but Kaito doubted they’d do anything frisky once they got back to the apartment. He was pretty tired and Kokichi looked like he was getting there too.

They said their goodnights to Rantaro and Kiyo before heading off to Kaito’s room. Kaito yawned as he sat down, shrugging his jacket off and tossing it somewhere. He was definitely more tired than he thought he’d been…

He sat silently and watched Kokichi get ready for bed, unwilling to get up and get changed himself. He briefly wondered what a world without Kokichi Ouma would even be like for him and found the thought terrified him. Kokichi had become such a constant in his life that thinking about him not being there felt wrong.

Kaito frowned, taking in the sight of Kokichi’s scars as he changed his shirt. How many times had he come close to a world without Kokichi before they met? Hell, he’d come close twice since they’d met. Once was entirely Kaito’s fault but the other was so out of his hands, he shuddered just thinking about it. He liked to pretend Kokichi hadn’t gotten a new scar from that incident, but he’d seen the pale scar on Kokichi’s forehead. Just because his bangs hid it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

He wondered what his grandparents would think about his “relationship” with Kokichi, if they knew. Would they be disappointed? Probably just a little. They were somewhat traditional in that they would have expected Kaito to at least take him out for dinner first.

Would they even like Kokichi? He could be charming when he wanted to be, even if it was mostly an act. His grandmother would probably like Kokichi right away, she always loved all of Kaito’s friends. His grandfather would judge Kokichi’s character harder but…

“Earth to Kaito!” Kokichi snapped his fingers in front of Kaito’s face, pulling him out of his thoughts. “What’s got you so dazed tonight?”

“I’m just thinking.”

“What about? Oh, is it fun stuff? I like fun stuff.”

“It’s...dumb stuff.”

Kokichi sat next to him, smiling.

“I like dumb stuff too.”

“Would you want to come home with me for winter break?” Kaito blurted, immediately regretting it.

Kokichi stared, wide eyed.

“The semester’s just started.” Kokichi said as if that was an answer.

“I-I know, I’m getting ahead of myself…”

“I mean it’s fine to plan ahead. But do you really want that?”

_Did he_?

“...Yeah, I do.” Kaito said, avoiding eye contact. “Sorry that was probably asking way too much too soon, huh?”

“No one’s asked something like that before. I mean it isn’t like Miu or Keebo have family to take me home to so… It’s...a first, that’s all.” Kokichi let out an awkward laugh before continuing, “I’m not gonna say no if you really want me there. But we’ve got time and if you change your mind, that’s fine.”

“R-Right.”

“Let’s get some sleep now ok? Before you go and ask me to marry you on accident or something.”

Kokichi’s teasing helped ease some of the anxiety growing in Kaito’s gut. Maybe it hadn’t been a mistake to ask that, even if it was sudden. Either way, they had time. If it was a mistake, Kaito could come up with an excuse to take back the offer. If things went perfectly from then until winter, well, he guessed Kokichi was officially meeting his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Shipperoftrashyships for helping to beta a part I was really uncertain about. I'm really enjoying writing this au. To the point I miiiiight add on stories of the dangan2 cast just so I can expand upon my ideas more in the future... Who would have thought a roommate au would get me feeling so inspired?


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